Project Overview

This project aims to develop an in-pipe acoustic communication system for precious PIG positioning in buried natural gas pipelines. Different from commonly-used solutions that rely on seismic inference for PIG positioning, the developed modem allows real-time transmission of the PIG position information from a self-localization system equipped on the PIG to an acoustic receiver deployed at the PIG retrieval site. This new approach is promising to offer orders-of-magnitude position accuracy increase. The developed modem also has the potential of being integrated with smart PIGs for real-time data transmission and control. This project will provide extensive HQP training opportunities and contribute to the future workforce development in the energy sector. The project results will enable Dr. Wang’s team to establish national and international industrial collaborations.