Completing the Pipeline Integrity Puzzle With Envirolock Containment

As long as there have been pipelines, there have been companies striving to prevent leaks and ruptures from occurring. More recently, with advancements in sensors and long-distance communication, the industry has made huge investments in rapidly detecting and shutting down releases as quickly as possible. Follow-up repair techniques and cut-out replacements make it possible to restore pipeline operations after an incident. Together, all of these pieces have made pipeline transport far safer than it used to be.

But there has always been a missing piece. What happens in the gap after prevention fails but before detection and response occurs? Fatalities, injuries, evacuations, pollution, and fires are among the possibilities that fill this gap. In the words of one industry commenter, "The explosive release cannot be mitigated." Containment has always been the missing piece because it seemed an impossible task from a technical standpoint, let alone a financial one. That is, until TCI's CEO Larry Young dared to challenge that assumption.

Today, we are proud that our Envirolock Containment System (ECS) not only prevents incidents, it contains whatever it cannot prevent. This even includes containing explosive ruptures up to ~4600 psig. Moreover, NO human, mechanical, or computer interventions are required to enact its protections. Instead, Envirolock's safeguards are inherent in its design and material properties. Pipelines with a contained release can even continue to operate for up to 6 months until repairs can be scheduled. In short, Envirolock completes the pipeline integrity puzzle, making it possible for pipeline emergencies to be entirely averted. Envirolock realigns the reality of pipeline integrity with the goals of pipeline integrity – “safety first”. Detection – while still necessary - is no longer the means through which safety is achieved. Taken together, ECS interrupts or neutralizes nearly every pipeline integrity challenge that operators face, as illustrated below:

Pioneering New Detection Strategies

Speaking of detection... A fortunate byproduct of ECS's ground-breaking containment capabilities is that it boosts the performance of detection systems using previously unavailable means. Low flows captured and concentrated in the annulus can be detected instantly by embedded fiber optic monitoring systems (to be chosen by the operator). Moreover, the isolation of the annulus from the environment effectively blocks false positives. Further, ECS's bulkheads confine leaks to their source location, enabling operators to pinpoint their location without exploratory excavation. The comprehensive way that Envirolock counteracts all types of pipeline integrity risks also simplifies operator decision-making, diminishing the need for detailed detection system selection tools. Consequently, although with Envirolock, safety is no longer contingent on detection, leak detection is nevertheless enhanced by Envirolock's innovations.