FUT Minna invents pipeline, railway monitoring detector
Story from Ibraheem Hamza MUHAMMAD
A Professor at the Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State, North Central Nigeria has invented a system capable of monitoring pipeline vandalisation across the country.
Professor Oluwafemi Ayodeji Olugboji of the Mechanical Engineering department of FUT Minna, during the inaugural lecture series 95 of the University, stated that the pipeline monitoring device when fixed can locate and characterise an event that happened along the pipeline in real-time.
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According to the Professor, the monitoring device can instantly sound an alert of dangers such as an explosion or drilling of the pipeline, natural leak, corrosion or any related issue capable of causing harm to the environment.
“Pipelines can be damaged either through a natural form such as corrosion, earthquake or activities of heavy-duty equipment passing through or third- party activities such as vandalisation, use of explosives, drilling device, or cutting device etc,” Prof Olugboji said.
Olugboji added that the monitoring system, when fixed to a pipeline, is designed to detect on time any damage or any impact on the pipeline, to adequately address any possible hazard.
“I’m hundred per cent optimistic the device we developed can actually be mounted on the gas pipeline from any location to be monitored by the authorities concerned.
“We made use of two different techniques in creating the device, digital filtering used for decomposition filter and linear filter for the detection of signals, then the reverse technique or the inverse method used for giving a precise location in real-time based on the information available whenever there’s a strike or any attack or damage on the pipeline, it works backwards to give out information in real-time.
“This technique is applicable not only on gas or petroleum pipelines but in places where you monitor systems that have to do with communicating from one end to another end like the rail transportation”.
Professor Olugboji, who further mentioned that the device can also be used for the tracking of potential dangers on railway lines said, “The recent Abuja- Kaduna railway attack could have been avoided if the said technique was applied as the device could have alerted to the operations department of a danger ahead.”
The Professor, who pointed out inadequate funding as a major challenge confronting researchers in the country, mentioned that the invention of the pipeline vandals detector and other successful researches by many in the country are lying down in workshops and departments for lack of support for various organisations.
“I have written various proposals to various parastatals of the petroleum industry, and most times, even when you make it to the interview stages all you hear is, “this is a viable and good project, we will get back to you and nobody gets back to you,” he pointed out.
While calling on the government in Nigeria for the efficient monitoring of research funding to individuals or institutes and making sure it gets to the end-users, Professor Olagboji urged the government on the need to always support people that are industrious in bringing out their vision into reality.
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