Underground storage tanks risk mitigation system

MoniTank - Underground storage tanks risk mitigation system for petrol fuel stations

MoniTank offers a commercial continuous advanced structural health monitoring system (SHM) for underground storage tanks (USTs) based on acoustic emission, risk based inspection techniques, IoT and advance signal processing and data acquisition systems. The product will be able to identify defects affecting structural integrity with 99% Probability of Detection (POD) in USTs before they lead to leak, rupture or failure. Consortium including INT NDT, IRIS, TWI, BIC and Floteks will avail the business opportunity provided by market of 132k potential customers (filling stations only in EU) and foreseen maintenance services investments in storage systems, resulting in growing NDT and maintenance needs and lack of robust autonomous continuous SHM systems for USTs in oil and gas production and distribution industries market at present by offering MoniTank product.

Limitations of current monitoring systems’ performance, their non-compliance with legislation/standards requirement of detection accuracy and reliance on experienced workforce for inspection and maintenance create a differentiating strategic advantage for successful market replication of MoniTank.

MoniTank will be able to provide continuous monitoring and will use intelligent algorithms to predict potential structural failure. The technologies integrated and validated during this project will consist of: sensors; processing capabilities (MCU processor hardware); AE sensors, transmission data; batteries; and data wireless transmission and cloud computing, therefore presenting the target customers with a system for risk based inspection criterion for USTs.

Objectives

To develop a continuous, sensor based condition monitoring system capable of transmitting condition of underground storage tanks online and defect recognition software in hands of operators making it possible to inspect underground storage tanks without need of decommissioning or downtime monitoring activity.

Benefits

MoniTank will strengthen energy safety by ensuring the integrity of tank structures, and guaranteeing supply of fuel/petrol/gas without disruptions or threats to environment, health or life. MoniTank will allow more cost effective operation of USTs with reduced inspection cost, increasing available capacity and throughput.

Project Partners

• Integrity NDT
• IRIS
• TWI Ltd
• Floteks
• Brunel University London

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Professor Tat-Hean Gan - Professional Qualifications CEng. IntPE (UK), Eur Ing BEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronics Engg (Uni of Nottingham) MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering (University of Warwick) MBA in International Business (University of Birmingham) PhD in Engineering (University of Warwick) Languages English, Malaysian, Mandarin, Cantonese Professional Bodies Fellow of the British Institute of NDT Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology Tat-Hean Gan has 10 years of experience in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Condition Monitoring of rotating machineries in various industries namely nuclear, renewable energy (eg Wind, Wave ad Tidal), Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Construction and Infrastructure, Aerospace and Automotive. He is the Director of BIC, leading activities varying from Research and development to commercialisation in the areas of novel technique development, sensor applications, signal and image processing, numerical modelling and electronics hardware. His experience is also in Collaborative funding (EC FP7 and UK TSB), project management and technology commercialisation.

Related Research Group(s)

Brunel Innovation Centre - A world-class research and technology centre that sits between the knowledge base and industry.

Project last modified 12/10/2023