KOGAS
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In-Line Inspection(ILI) Technology
Key Solution to Pipeline Integrity Management
Natural gas transmission pipelines are buried underground where corrosion defects, third party damage, etc. can arise with time. Accurate detection of such anomalies in pipelines is essential in maintenance of pipeline integrity. In-Line Inspection technology(ILI) is a state-of-the-art pipeline Integrity management technology that accurately detects and locates anomalies of pipelines while running through pipelines by gas supply.
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Development Background
KOGAS operates natural gas pipeline network of 5,027 km. Its maintenance is required to prevent gas leakage failure during operation. Before KOGAS Research Institute developed the ILI(; called formerly ‘Intelligent Pig’), KOGAS had to depend solely on the foreign ILI technology.
However, as the pipeline network expanded, the cost of inspection continued to rise, the availability of ILI technology per our own schedule was restricted, and data management given from different vendors was difficult based on pipeline route, KOGAS started to develop our own ILI technology. -
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R&D
In 2000, KOGAS started to develop geometry pig and magnetic flux leakage pig (30”), and these have been deployed since 2008. Pigs for different pipeline diameters such as 20”, 24”, 26”, and 36” were lined-up afterwards. Inspection distance record attains over 4,000km so far.
For the inspection of medium pressure pipeline buried in urban area, low friction type MFL tool was developed and inspected successfully at one go in spite of concerns of velocity surge which is considered as a characteristic phenomenon under low pressure condition. -
Core Technology
KOGAS ILI research group retain circumferential MFL to detect crack and prototype self-propelling inspection robot assembled with MFL technology. High resolution MFL tool with high accuracy inertial navigation system and its advanced proprietary post data treatment and management system can provide with exact pipeline trajectory as well as accurate anomaly size.
Furthermore, these can help various utilizations of information in aspects of maintenance and integrity management like repair, pigging interval determination according to defect growth prediction, and prevention of third party damage using exact pipeline coordinates obtained by ILI. -
Benefit
KOGAS ILI research group are developing new ILI with original concept for the inspection of pipelines under low pressure and low flow rate which is globally regarded as ‘unpiggable’ due to the surge phenomenon leading to collision of ILI equipment and loss of signal.
This is scheduled to be validated in 2026, and expected to increase ILI coverage by about 20%p of our pipelines. On-going data management technology development with low pressure ILI will provide various kinds of accurate and useful information like 3D digital mapping system in terms of integrity management.
