The most accurate way to identify and monitor liquids within sealed containers and pipelines is through sound.
That’s the innovation driving Perceptive Sensor Technologies (PST), which is revolutionizing the oil and gas industry, with its Acoustic Fingerprinting technology for a lot more practical applications.
With 22 approved patents and another 30 in the process, Jim Paladino describes PST as a technology company gathering data based on their embedded devices.
The Perceptive Sensor Technologies Vice President of Finance said PST has developed a product that sits on a pipe, container or tank and analyzes the contents in real time, something no one can do in the same way across the O&G and chemical industries.
The breakthrough practical applications are allowing PST to transition from research and development to full commercialization and solution provider.
How it works
Perceptive Sensor Technologies utilizes ultrasonic waves to determine the “fingerprint” of the fluid in any closed metal container via a PST monitor that recognizes and labels the unique echoes from each fluid. The fluid’s “DNA,” or actual chemical components, mirrors the ultrasonic fingerprint. As the company says, “We know ‘who’ you are with a fingerprint but not ‘what’ you are from your DNA/23 chromosomes.”
Company officials say an ultrasonic pulse is generated from outside the container wall. Patented technology and software collect data in a proprietary database. Through a process of acoustic fingerprinting, fluid types are identified and assigned a unique code. This can happen in Pitch-Catch modality or Pitch-Echo modality.
This process leads to 100 percent accurate readings of what is inside, which is delivered in real time to a control panel, dashboard or client cell phone for round-the-clock monitoring.
According to Paladino, the technology has been utilized for years and was developed by the U.S. military to test and identify suspected deadly liquids inside sealed foreign containers.
Cold War research and testing was conducted at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, where researchers found each liquid has a unique sound identifier. Researchers fingerprinted the test liquids and came up with approximately 250 unique items. This lab effort pulled out five identifiers, and new technology improved that to seven.
The FBI got involved while looking for and monitoring the threat of imported dangerous chemicals like acetone, which is used in methamphetamine and cocaine production.
Today’s use
Paladino said the only comparable tools on the market are a largely ineffective tuning fork apparatus that sells for $10,000 apiece and a $250,000 optical product seeking to provide similar results.
PST products sell for around $55,000 depending on the pipe size, and there is a small service commitment for database and software upgrades.
Two devices are installed on the nation’s largest pipeline, helping monitor gasoline flow and distillate flow that reaches 21,000 gallons every minute.
Perceptive Sensor Technologies can monitor the pipe to accurately report exactly when kerosene, jet fuel or diesel is pumping through or when there is a mixture, which is called “transmix.” Clients will know the exact percentages of each part at a single moment.
“If you got jet fuel, it has got to be pure and pristine,” Paladino said. “We can look inside this pipe from the outside and basically tell where these cut points are, and they save a lot more money.”
Installation for such monitoring capabilities takes less than two hours.
Perceptive Sensor Technologies is also working with the Department of Defense by helping to safely monitor hydrazine storage for spacecrafts. Hydrazine is a toxic propellant used for maneuvering, thrust, and auxiliary power.
PST monitoring makes the process safer and eliminates a lot of dangerous manual testing.
Paladino stressed the market-best product eliminates the need to cut into pipes and provides the best data in real time. There are no potential leak points, and the product does not deteriorate sitting internally in fuels.
It’s already active at many midstream facilities and a few refineries, where it is being used by major companies to analyze streams or identify and monitor concerns with acids.
More developments are expected in 2025.
“We continue to develop devices where we can monitor AST tanks (Above Ground Storage) for the metrics that are important to facility operators,” Paladino said. “We think it will be a gamechanger when all our devices speak to each other and offer complete ‘solutions’ for the industry instead of a widget that stands alone and doesn’t integrate into others ecosystems.”
To learn more, visit perceptivesensors.com or email info@perceptivesensors.com.
