The development of a new technology for detecting problems in the nation’s 2-million-mile underground pipeline network was awarded a grant Friday by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX, and a coalition of researchers and energy companies, including Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co., the largest U. S. natural gas distributor.

This $272,420 award is part of an eight-project $1.9 million DOT grant program aimed at upgrading the safety/reliability of the nation’s pipeline system. SoCalGas, which has been participating in earlier research work under the program as part of its membership in the Washington, DC-based Pipeline Research Council International Inc. (PRCI), is co-funding the latest project on what is called “magnetostrictive-sensor technology,” along with the DOT, PRCI and Gulf South Pipeline in Houston.

“This grant makes possible research and development of technology that will further enhance pipeline transportation safety by extending the integrity and lifetime of installed pipeline and its various components,” said Sempra’s Lee Stewart, senior vice president of gas transmission systems for the SoCal and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. utilities. He noted that this is the third DOT award this year to SoCalGas and its industry partners.

Already used commercially, the magnetic sensoring uses a high-powered guided wave to allow long-range pipeline inspection, covering more than 100-foot lengths of pipe in above-ground pipelines, but it has been limited to 20-foot increments in underground pipe. The DOT-SoCal-funded next phase of the research is to extend the length of pipe that can be checked underground, which would improve the technology’s economic and inspection range to get it more widely used in the industry.

Earlier grants that involve SoCal and some of its partners involve better ways to predict and identify areas in pipelines susceptible to internal corrosion ($260,000 DOT award last February), and wider use of sensitive, non-intrusive sensors to uncover pipeline defects ($400,000 from DOT last July).

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