Public Funding for Plastometrex Ltd

There are over 2 million miles of (gas and liquid) transport pipelines across the world. When these pipelines fail it can cause major (and lasting) environmental and economic damage to both operators and the public. On average, 85% of product released remains unrecovered, 53% of incidents contaminate soil, and 41% devastate fragile ecosystems. The economic cost is about $500m per year in the U.S. alone. There have been more than 250 deaths in the past 20 years. In response to this, a changing regulatory landscape is putting ever-increasing pressure on the testing and safe management of existing pipeline networks, as is their repurposing for use in hydrogen transport. In the US alone the new "Mega Rule" safety legislation is creating a $12.5 billion pipeline testing market over the next 15 years. To meet these new requirements there is now an urgent need for new technologies that can test onshore pipeline networks in a way that is simple, robust, and affordable. This project will design and develop a portable measurement system for the in-situ testing of pipelines. The solution will reimagine an innovative measurement methodology (Indentation Plastometry) which is currently benchtop-based, into a portable hand-held device (called P-PIP). The underlying technology uses advanced numerical methods to extract critical metal strength parameters in just 2.5 minutes (instead of hours) from a non-destructive test. It has also been shown to be 8/7 times more accurate than the nearest scientific competitor. P-PIP prototype sub-systems will be designed, developed, and tested with expert industry guidance from our project partner, ROSEN. A commercialisation roadmap will also be developed with ROSEN and other expert advisors (from Element Materials Technology and the National Physical Laboratory) to target hydrogen transport and natural gas pipeline markets. Successful exploitation post-project will create substantial regional and national economic impact, safer pipelines, and support the global transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy.