Challenge Description

The route of the Concentrate Transport System (STC in Spanish) has a buried steel pipeline (maximum depth 2 m) of 7″ diameter over an extension of 121 kilometers. It extends from the head station located at the concentrator plant at 1610 masl, to the terminal station located at Punta Chungo at 20 masl. In order to identify the external risks of the pipeline route, a visual inspection is carried out over the STC area, with 24-hour patrol personnel.

Scope

• Identify and ideally predict internal and external threats that could generate material damage to the STC system (internal wear and corrosion, geotechnical threats and damage generated by third parties).
• This monitoring and prediction is expected to be as close to real time as possible (~1 hr).

Background – Previous experiences

• Pipeline remains buried and ideally cannot be tampered with.
• Consider implementation risks associated with communities (permits or other).
• There are monitoring elements such as cameras in some sectors of the route/stations.

Expected benefits

• Real-time monitoring with logs and alerts.
• Zero operational events with environmental consequences or loss of production, until the closure of the current STC operations.
• Leak detection.
• Thickness and liner failure detection.
• Identification of intrusion in the area near the pipeline.

Key performance indicators

• Operational events with environmental or production loss consequences (target 0).
• Number of events detected preventively.

Operation and processes involved

Area of interest: Fluid transport

Interested management: Fluid Transport and Dams Management

Process involved: Concentration