Precise Condition Assessment of Metallic Pipes Dramatically Reducing Maintenance and Investment Cost in District Heating and Drinking Water Pipe Networks by pinpointing Pipe Segments to be replaced

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Operators of water disOperators of water distribution and district heating DH systems, must deal with current inefficient non-preventive pipe maintenance based on empirical/indirect data or on acting once the leakage has been already manifested. The few pre-emptively technology on the market is currently unavailable for DH pipes (T°>120°C) and give incomplete data for large-scale predictions. Hence, today DH pipe’s care and maintenance cost is high, because pipes are either exchanged too early or too late. We are Breivoll Inspection Technologies (Norway). Our mission is to provide a highly reliable operation of pipe networks with low downtimes, risks, and maintenance. We have developed PIPESCANNER, a ground-breaking acoustic resonance scanner to fully assess water/DH pipes, mm per mm. PIPESCANNER detect the inner and the outer wall abrasion caused by corrosion via ultrasonic resonance, offering a complete 360° map of its current state. Then, our software analyses the collected dataset and provides a comprehensive risk & cost assessment pipe maintenance based on forecasting approach. PIPESCANNER inspection service is now successfully commercialized across the water distribution segment, having covered >137km of pipes in 7 countries, and proving outstanding savings in pipeline maintenance: 63% in water distribution (Oslo VAV) and 77% in district heating (MOEK, Russia). After this SME project, we expect to operate our technology under the specific high-temperature requirements of DH pipes, becoming first movers in their Operation and Maintenance (O&M). With over 2% of the European water pipes being replaced each year, and DH making up 10% of all of Europe’s heating infrastructure, PIPESCANNER will has a positive impact for both Europe and our company: we expect to reach 5,000 DH companies by entering the largest DH markets in the EU and Russia, achieving €35 million of cumulative revenues (€21 million profits) (ROI of 9.5). and hiring at least 10 new people by 2025