Water & Wastewater Asia January/February 2022

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IN THE FIELD PROTECTING against water loss Pedro Barbosa, product owner at Fotech, a bp Launchpad company, looks at the current threats to water pipelines and explores how advanced distributed acoustic sensing technology is supporting operators to monitor and maintain their networks better. Water is a precious resource, yet it is lost worldwide on a vast scale. According to the World Bank, non-revenue water loss costs an estimated US$15 billion per year 1 . There is enormous pressure for water operators to minimise leakage and to reduce risk across their networks while simultaneously making cost savings. Minimising water loss can ultimately be achieved through effectively monitoring and maintaining the integrity of the water pipeline networks. CURRENT THREATS TO PIPELINES Water loss is a major problem worldwide. For example, Skopje, Croatia, lost 22% of its water in 2020 2 . There are a few reasons that typically cause loss – aging pipelines are more susceptible to failure, and if made from steel, could experience corrosion that results in leaks; mechanical damage can cause ruptures; or water can be stolen by being siphoned off. Theft is also a significant threat to pipelines. Indeed, an Australian study revealed that up to half of the world’s water supply is stolen annually 3 . It is particularly prevalent in agricultural settings where crops need constant irrigation. CHALLENGE WITH EXISTING MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES Internal-based monitoring systems, which infer the presence of a leak, have traditionally been used to check for leaks. These systems – such as mass balance and real-time transient modelling (RTTM) – use computational pipeline monitoring (CPM) to calculate different operational conditions. However, they tend to have low sensitivity to small leaks and long detectability times. As a result, leaks are often missed or alarms are only raised after large quantities of water have already been lost. In contrast, external-based systems, such as fibre optic sensing, take direct measurements of different response dynamics associated with the leak, such as the noise produced by the leak. This provides a quicker detection of smaller amounts of water leakage. There is a critical need for a continuous monitoring solution that enables water operators to detect leaks and theft attempts not only quickly but also accurately. This is where advanced sensing technologies comes into play. DAS SMART SOLUTION One technology that can monitor pipelines for both leak detection and disturbances related to attempted theft is distributed antenna system (DAS). For example, Fotech’s LivePIPE solution uses photonic sensing DAS technology that turns a fibre optic cable running alongside a water pipeline network to thousands of vibration sensors, able to detect disturbances along the length of the pipeline. The technology has the ability to send thousands of pulses of light along the fibre optic cable every second and monitors the fine pattern of light reflected back. When acoustic or vibrational energy – such as that created by a leak or by digging – creates a strain on the optical fibre, this changes the 30 WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
IN THE FIELD reflected light pattern. By using advanced algorithms and processing techniques, DAS analyses these changes to identify and to categorise any disturbance. Each type of disturbance has its own signature and the technology can inform the operator, in real time, what happen, where it happened, and when it happened. Combining information gathered from multiple monitoring and maintenance sensors into an overarching view, provides water companies an understanding of what is happening on a pipeline at any given moment. Only then can operators maintain and respond to any events before they become major incidents. References 1. Reducing Water Loss in Developing Countries Using Performance-Based Service Contracting (worldbank.org) 2. Wasted Water: Leaking Pipelines Threaten to Let Balkans Run Dry | Balkan Insight 3. Up to half of world’s water supply stolen annually, study finds | Murray-Darling Basin | The Guardian FINDING FAULTS FAST LivePIPE technology provides a smart barrier along the entire length of the pipeline, which can detect and alarm leaks of different sizes and their position along and around the water pipeline in real time. DAS can detect vibrations caused by water being forced through a pipeline rupture, or by ground displacement associated with small leaks in pipelines that would otherwise remain undetected. If the source of a leak is a tiny orifice, it could remain undetected or it could take days for the location of an incident to be identified with existing CPM systems. DAS is able to detect leaks as small as 20 litres per minute, raising the alarm in just 90 seconds, by which only 30 litres will have escaped. This speed is an improvement by a significant order of magnitude to existing technology. DAS can identify water leaks from many different sized orifices, even as small as 1mm, MAINTAINING NETWORK INTEGRITY Maintaining pipeline network integrity and protecting against leaks and malicious theft are some of the biggest priorities for water companies due to the efficiency improvements that can be made and resulting cost savings. By gaining visibility of the integrity of their entire network, water companies can protect against water loss, and can safeguard their assets and bottom-lines while reducing risk. DAS provides a critical layer of additional intelligence, with its continuous monitoring, and can detect and pinpoint the location of multiple threats simultaneously, such as small leaks and third-party interferences. This technology can also be integrated with existing monitoring systems to complement them. Energy Recovery Making industrial wastewater treatment affordable. Energy Recovery’s suite of energy recovery devices (ERDs), from the Ultra PX to the PX Pressure Exchanger and Turbocharger, significantly reduces energy waste in industrial wastewater treatment. Our ERDs decrease your energy consumption by up to 60%, and allow you to reduce the load on thermal equipment, helping you reach your ZLD/MLD goals. Energy Recovery has brought our globally recognized, unparalleled reliability from desalination to industrial wastewater. energyrecovery.com WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 31
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Water & Wastewater Asia January/February 2022

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