LoRaWAN is setting the future strategy for Condition-based Asset Monitoring.
For Rotterdam based I-IoT experts TWTG, 31st August 2021 is a milestone in this pioneering technology company’s moderately short, but colourful history. On that day, the team announced they had won a tender to supply Shell’s Pernis Refinery with their NEON Vibration Sensors.
For oil and gas operators, the ambition to increase the digitalisation of facilities has become increasingly prevalent. And also for Shell, the future of asset performance management is changing. Becoming ever more digitised, with data collected from Industrial IoT sensors providing increased insight and knowledge. This project will help demonstrate the benefits that condition-based asset monitoring can bring to any industrial facility.
The Vibration Sensors work by detecting bearing faults on pumps, motors or other rotating equipment early, allowing operators to act swiftly before any serious issues arise, so by reducing downtime and eliminating potentially hazardous situations. The Vibration Sensor is designed to be retrofitted to existing machinery and enable previously-passive objects to achieve ‘smart’ abilities and accordingly, contribute data.
Data enables engineers to learn about the wellbeing of a facility and make proactive decisions concerning maintenance or replacement of equipment. Over time, harvested data will enable engineers to analyse historical data, look for clues, anomalies, or sequences of events that occurred as precursors to an incident and start to learn the, sometimes seemingly unconnected, tell-tale markers to avoid recurrences.
Beautifully designed, robust devices, NEON products are built with the quality components and materials necessary to meet the stringent levels essential for use in the oil and gas environments. A crucial feature of the Vibration Sensor is its ability to transmit frequency spectrum via LoRaWAN. This functionality is a game-changer, eagerly demanded and awaited for by engineers - a feat never achieved before by a LoRaWAN sensor.
Felix Fikke, Instrumentation Project Engineer at Shell Pernis, was excited about having NEON Vibration Sensor on site: “These devices will change the way that we monitor our pumps and allow us to react faster. We can measure root-mean-square (RMS) velocity as well as Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and all this is possible with a LoRaWAN sensor - which is fantastic!”
For TWTG, to win the Shell tender is a significant moment and one they do not take lightly. John Tillema, Co-founder and CTO at TWTG, is understandably enthusiastic. “We are delighted Shell placed their trust in TWTG for the delivery of our products, and we will work tirelessly to demonstrate that we should be the supplier of choice for any other LoRaWAN devices in the future.”
And for TWTG, this is incredibly personal. Shell’s actions validate their decision to keep their development firmly concentrated on LoRaWAN based products.
Tillema explains, “It wasn’t a quick decision to base our future development on LoRaWAN. Over the last few years, the industry has debated which protocol is the perfect wireless backhaul to establish tomorrow’s I-IoT And for TWTG, this is incredibly personal. Shell’s actions validate their decision to keep their development firmly concentrated on LoRaWAN based products. Tillema explains, “It wasn’t a quick decision to base our future development on LoRaWAN. Over the last few years, the industry has debated which protocol is the perfect wireless backhaul to establish tomorrow’s I-IoT solutions. Bluetooth, 5G, Wifi, to name a few - and of course LoRaWAN.
We didn’t ignore these discussions - in fact, we listened hard. We didn’t bury our heads in the sand and continue development regardless. We continually assessed our strategy and reviewed the technological landscape. And always we came to the same conclusion - That LoRaWAN was the right strategy.
It’s the only protocol to tick all the boxes - Affordability, scalability, reliability, versatility. LoRaWAN devices use very little power - The lack of hardwiring meant that devices could be fitted anywhere, installed and calibrated in only a few minutes. And probably the last determinator - these devices were retrofittable. This means oil and gas companies can enable existing facilities to become ‘Smart’ without the need to replace what is otherwise perfectly functional equipment.
We have worked hard for this moment; it’s a big moment for TWTG. But for me, this moment is about our team. I am proud of every member of our team we have assembled to get this far. It’s their endless resilience, aptitude, and enthusiasm that drives us to achieve, well, almost anything.”
Partners Report Reveal Impressive Results from TWTG Devices
Shells’ recent announcement coincides with a new report released in August that compares measurements from NEON Vibration Sensors with established portable vibration testing equipment. These tests were conducted under the watchful eye of external testing engineers and involved testing seven different machines at two locations.
TWTG’s R&D lead, Thijs Buuron, explained the principle behind the report. “We set out to prove the accuracy and adaptability of our NEON Vibration Sensor, which is designed to be retrofitted onto any pump or motor in the field. Scrutinised by test partners, we performed a series of tests, first with our own Vibration Sensor and then with the certified test equipment.
We used two different solutions for the test equipment, and these are generally accepted to be the best available on the market, and notably, each cost approximately 30 times the price of a single NEON vibration device.”
Before the test, KPIs were agreed upon that would define a successful result. The goal was to achieve comparable results to the test apparatus in terms of RMS velocity.
For TWTG, the results were fantastic. The NEON devices demonstrated the KPIs agreed and provided close to the given measurements of the extremely precise manual vibration measurement instruments used as the control tools.
Buuron revealed, ”All in all, we are excited with the results, and they absolutely verify the accuracy of the LoRaWAN sensors. In general, the test demonstrates that our numbers match very closely with the reference numbers.
They represent an opportunity for engineers to achieve near real-time measurements and enjoy a far better insight into trend information. This is powerful data that allows companies to benefit from early warnings and eventually avoid unscheduled downtime altogether.”
Buuron is a testament to Tillema’s belief in the team TWTG have built over the past few years. In 2018, after graduating from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Buuron joined TWTG and quickly established himself as a key member of the development team.
If his work wasn’t busy enough already, Buuron is always keen to expand his knowledge and TWTG encourages this by freeing up his schedule to study remotely at the University of Boulder, Colorado, for a Masters in Electrical Engineering.
In his spare time, Buuron relaxes by creating his own personal electrical engineering projects. Currently, he’s tracking his friends and colleagues and then applying some advanced machine learning techniques, aiming to perfect his Nerf Gun gameplay.
A New Landscape
TWTG’s recent successes represent a new mindset for the oil and gas industry. As an industry, it has been slow to adopt new technology - not just today, in digital terms - but also in bygone years with mechanical innovations, it is an industry that invests in terms of generations, not years. Traditionally, there has always been time to think about change and a cushion of money on which to take that time to decide.
But now, things are different. The technological wave is so rapid, it changes and evolves at a totally different pace. You can’t plan a technological solution that will be in place for a generation. However, oil and gas companies have understood the value of technology and recognise it will make them more profitable and allow them to differentiate in terms of safety and efficiency in a hypercompetitive environment.
What is needed is technological solutions that work with existing infrastructure. Not wholesale replacement of what is still good machinery to achieve a digital overview.
The last word is with the co- Founder, Tillema. “With the Shell announcement and the release of the report that confirms the viability of the Vibration Sensor, it has been a big couple of weeks for TWTG, but we are confident this is only the beginning of a new period of digitisation within the industry. Like an oil tanker, the oil and gas industry has been slow to turn, but now the ship has begun to turn, we are heading into a new technological era. Oil and gas companies are seeing the benefits of utilising data to increase efficiency, safety, and ultimately profitability.”
TWTG
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