As Canada’s pipeline industry strives for zero incidents, innovation is, and will continue to be, the driver of progress.
Energy Connections Canada member Hifi Engineering Inc., recently announced the achievement of 100 patents either approved or pending. This remarkable milestone in their field of fibre optic sensing technology helps their clients operate some of the smartest, safest pipelines in the world.
Hifi Engineering is a leader in the development, supply and commercial operation of next generation fibre optic sensing technologies and machine learning software, which is primarily used for preventative monitoring of pipelines and other critical assets.
Fibre optic technology provides a continuous, linear sensor that can be installed along the length of new or existing pipelines, providing a solution to the limitations with traditional monitoring technologies:
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- Point sensors such as flow meters, vibration sensors or strain gauges, while able to offer 24/7 coverage, typically have limited spatial coverage.
- Periodic surveys such as drones or manual inspections offer improved spatial coverage, but might not be in the right place at the right time.
Hifi’s technology is deployed or currently under deployment across over 3,000,000 meters of pipeline assets globally.
Aside from their patents, Hifi has received multiple other accolades for their work, including:
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- Named one of SDTC’s Sustainability Changemakers for both 2022 and 2023.
- Winner of the 2022 Innovation Award for Deep Fake verification from the Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA).
- Winner of the 2021 Project Award for the TransMountain Expansion Project (TMEP) from FOSA.
- Winner of the 2021 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and Clean Technology program award.
“Hifi is extremely proud to have achieved this important intellectual property milestone,” said Ehsan Jalilian, Hifi’s Vice President and CIO. “Hifi remains committed to advancing the distributed sensing field and driving innovation in our focused market segments.”
