Silicon Meets Steel as Pipeline Operators Try Fiber Optics
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Enbridge Inc. and TransCanada Corp., two of the world’s top pipeline companies, are starting to use fiber optics to avoid spills.
They’re piloting a system that can pinpoint leaks and other disturbances down to the centimeter (0.4 inch) in real time, using a fiber-optic wire that’s threaded inside or alongside a pipeline to measure acoustic, temperature and vibration data. The technology will even alert the pipeline operator if construction work is getting too close to a line.