The world’s oil and gas is transported using a network of steel pipelines most of which lie underground. The length of this network in the US/Canada alone is 3.5 million kilometers. Keeping track of pipes in such a network for pipeline-health monitoring, maintenance, and logistics is an acute problem faced by pipeline-operators. Recently, radio-frequency-identification tags (RFIDs) have been proposed for tracking pipelines and even for monitoring pipeline health with additional built-in sensors. Low-cost RFID tags are wirelessly powered and battery-less. However, RFIDs do not function optimally in the presence of magnetic carbon steel pipes that are prevalent in the industry. High-frequency wireless signals also attenuate rapidly through wet soils. In this research, the use of passive RFID sensor platforms for interrogating buried pipes up to 1.25 m deep in the LF bands is proposed. Using magnetic-induction-based communication, a test-comparison between conventional full/half duplex (FDX/HDX) and sequential (SEQ) RFID schemes is detailed. Wireless measurements in the presence of an industry-standard ASTM A-53 carbon-steel pipe show a SEQ RFID offering better immunity against magnetic proximity effects of the pipe’s wall with an 8.3 dB (x6.8) improvement over a FDX/HDX RFID operating under similar conditions over a distance of 80–125 cm at which pipes are typically buried.
This research looks at the use of high frequency (HF) magnetic fields to desorb/reduce harmful chemical compounds within gasoline and diesel that commonly leak out of underground storage tanks. Using a multi-strand coil design, measured magnetic fields of over 3 kilo-amperes per meter are generated at an optimal frequency of 117 kHz without skin-depth losses, and without the use of expensive super-conductors or liquid-cooled mechanisms. This high frequency magnetic field is successfully used in non-contact-based magnetic heating and desorption of Gasoline and Diesel mixed with sand, water and easily-dispersible, benign micrometer-sized iron filings, used as a magnetic absorber. Gas chromatography (GC) tests done on magnetically-heated Gasoline-soil and Diesel-soil mixtures show desorption/reduction of gasoline and diesel by 44% and 51% respectively, but desorption/reduction of harmful BTEX compounds and other chemical irritants within Gasoline and Diesel by 28–66% after only 80 minutes of magnetic heating. Review of remediation/desorption methods show magnetic fields fare favorably in comparison to other methods that require longer treatment period or the use of secondary pollutants at reducing hydrocarbon and BTEX compounds in them.
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