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Security Monitoring of Natural Gas Pipeline as Cyber -physical System Priyankar Roychoudhury 1, Biswajit Debnath2* 1 Department
of Networking and Security, Telecom Paristech, Eurecom Campus, France
2*Department
of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, India
Introduction Natural Gas Pipeline leakages may lead to large economic loss, combined with environmental pollution. Thus, the security and maintenance of the pipeline infrastructure is one of the major concerns. The demand of natural gas is increasing day by day because of two things – a) The increase in demand of energy sector and b) the tag of green fuel. The major component of natural gas is methane and other lighter hydrocarbons. Methane being a very easily combustible gas can burn on its own when it comes in contact with oxygen. Presence of ethane and water can lead to formation of hydrate which may clot pipelines. Leakage in the supply pipeline or formation of hydrate may lead to disasters. Hence, a proper monitoring is important but it is impossible to monitor a pipeline manually.
Existing Technologies Natural gas pipeline requires effective monitoring and surveillance solution including a round-the-clock vigil on key operational parameters in the distribution network, as well as monitoring leakages, electronic surveillance and physical patrolling. Common pipeline security measures include aerial surveillance, ground patrolling, installation of pipeline warning boards/markers, deployment of security personnel, and conducting awareness campaigns to educate habitants along the pipeline route. Advanced telecommunication systems and leak detection systems are also widely used to improve the monitoring and remote control of pipelines. The latest technology which is termed as Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) system can convert a fiber optic cable into a listening device. It comprises of an optical interrogator unit that sends a pulse of light to the fiber optic and an acoustical processing unit that process the vibration. A small percentage of light returns to the source — this effect is called “backscatter.” Sound or vibration near the fiber changes the backscattered light and the changes are analyzed by the interrogator unit to re-create the sound or vibration that caused them. The sounds are sent to the acoustical processing unit, which analyzes the sounds using sonar processing algorithms to create specific alarms for a given event or sequence of events.
The Cyber-physical System
Distributed wireless sensors nodes have been proposed that uses piezoelectric material for fabrication. Sensors have two parts – a) the sensor part that is piezoelectric and b) the wireless part. The basic idea is to capture the wave generated due to the motion of the gas via the pipelines and to convert them into electrical signals. Wireless sensor nodes are placed along the pipeline in high number density that result in short sensing range which can compensate the inaccuracy of each sensing node and greater number of sensors will produce high signal to noise ratio (SNR). So, these sensors can be seen as distributed sensors throughout the pipeline. These wireless sensor nodes will be divided into groups and for each group, a base station is allotted nearby. Each base station can receive the data from group of sensors allotted to it wirelessly when these sensor nodes sense something and transmit the alarm message to base station allotted. Each base station is connected to the Internet and the Control room can access the data using Internet by secure login in their website accounts through their web browser. This whole combination is refereed as the cyber-physical system. Schematic Diagram
Literature Review Sun et al. (2011) used Magnetic Induction Based Wireless Sensor networks to monitor underground pipelines. It employs both internal and external sensors for the purpose. Leeuwen et al. (2013) performed field study to detect leakage of CO2 pipelines using five simple sensors and measured their robustness. Rault et al. (2014) presented a detailed review on energy efficiency of wireless networks. Vasiliev et al. (2014) used an methane MEMS sensor for detection of methane in water. Hutchinson et al. presented a review of cyber security management in industrial control systems.
Rationale Behind Research Optical Fibers are very expensive though the raw materials are cheap and high installation cost. The cables are fragile and cannot be joined like copper wires. Expensive precision splicing, measuring equipment and trained personnel to repair. Armed security guards cannot be everywhere at the same time & CCTV security cameras are effective for surveillance. CCTV is less useful if not incorporated into a complete security system. Also they are not always economically viable. Whether there exists more economic solution? Can the shortcomings of the existing technologies be mitigated? This work tries to find an economic solution to this problem.
Conclusion Piezoelectric material based wireless sensor has been proposed to be implemented for security monitoring of natural gas pipelines along with internet. Tiny wireless sensor nodes are easy to manufacture in much lower cost. Due to small size and self-contained power supply, they can be deployed in environments without any source of external power supply and even in hostile and dangerous environments. Due to their tiny size, their survivability chance is much more in case of any external pressure. They also face fewer failures which result in low human involvement and low cost maintenance. The findings of this paper will help the security and monitoring of natural gas pipeline and may reduce chances of accidents.
References Zhi Sun et al. MISE-PIPE: Magnetic induction-based wireless sensor networks for underground pipeline monitoring, Ad Hoc Networks 9 (2011) 218–227 Charlotte van Leeuwen et al. Leak detection of CO2 pipelines with simple atmospheric CO2 sensors for carbon capture and storage, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 19 (2013) 420–431 William Knowles at al. Kevin Jones, A survey of cyber security management in industrial control systems, International journal of critical infrastructure protection (Article in Press).
