The amount of gaspipelines build in the world does clearly exceed the number of oil or product lines. This is a growing market and also the new field of clean energy with the idea of using hydrogen as energy source for the future is becoming a big new field where pipelines will play an important role not only for transportation of the gas but also as a possibility for storage of the medium.

Therfore GLD is developing a new leak detection tool for gas pipelines. The challenges here are not only to provide a reliable and sensitive detection of the leak combined with the most accurate location but also making the tools safe and robust when it comes to the conditions found in gas pipeline networks.

The presentation will cover the whole development phase with all the ideas and drawbacks we had and also display some changes for making acoustic leak detection available for the new medium compared to liquid pipelines. The focus hereby is the diference in signal frequencies and signal geometry. Also developing a new type of carrier was a challenge as the tool needed, compared to our liquid tools, seal the pipeline but run very quiet and without too much noise generated by sliding friction of sealing discs or similar components.

We had been developing in close collaboration with the Institute for Materials and Processes at the University of applied sience in Karlsruhe. They had been supporting us with several simulations and tests to gain more experience especially with regards to material behavior.