Case Study
Edge Computing in Oil & Gas
Penguin Solutions brings AI-powered predictive maintenance, remote operation, and 99.5% uptime to remote oilfield equipment
Overview
Streamline Innovations is revolutionizing clean technology with its proprietary Valkyrie™ hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas treating process, which transforms toxic H2S into elemental sulfur for use in fertilizers, eliminating pollution across multiple industries. To enhance the efficiency and reliability of its operations, Streamline Innovations leverages Stratus edge computing from Penguin Solutions, enabling AI-powered predictive maintenance, remote operation, and 99.5% uptime for remote oilfield equipment.
Challenges
• I dentify an edge computing platform to deploy OT and IT capabilities for precise monitor and control of proprietary H2S removal process
• O perate with limited data connectivity in remote Oil & Gas locations
• D eliver on customer service-level agreement (SLA) of minimum 95% uptime and meet customers’ automation budgets
Solution
• D eploy Penguin Solutions Stratus ztC Edge® platform to develop, host, and protect Valkyrie Intelligent Platform (VIP)
• Leverage Stratus ztC Edge platform’s built-in virtualization to run Inductive Automation®, PostgreSQL database, and Python™ and layer Seeq® artificial intelligence (AI) software
• Connect Stratus ztC Edge platform to wide area network (WAN) for cloud data analysis, remote visibility, and full functionality
Benefits
• Enabled real-time data analysis, human-machine interface (HMI), visibility, and tracking of 50 key performance indicators (KPIs) from a control room five hours away
• Reduced required onsite staffing by 66%, saving time and cost, using AI-powered predictive maintenance
• Achieved 99.5% uptime in remote location, surpassing customer SLA of 95%, and met customer cost point
From smart to intelligent oilfield equipment with edge computing
Streamline Innovations, based in San Antonio, Texas, develops and operates a proprietary hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas treating process called Valkyrie that reduces toxic H2S to elemental sulphur used in fertilizer. The result is a novel clean tech process that eliminates pollution for Oil & Gas, Water & Wastewater, landfills, and biogas.
With Stratus edge computing from Penguin Solutions, Streamline Innovations brought intelligence and remote operations to complex process skids and enabled continuous operation, surpassing customer expectations. With its Valkyrie Intelligence Platform (VIP) running on the Stratus ztC Edge, the company now remotely monitors units with 99.5% uptime. Data is sent from the Stratus ztC Edge to Microsoft Azure for a centralized view of equipment that is accessible remotely from control centers and operator trucks. With Induction Automation HMI/supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), a PostgreSQL database, and Python Linux running concurrently on the Stratus ztC Edge, the team has precision process control with tiered intelligence to continuously monitor and analyze performance around the clock.
Deploying proprietary clean tech for remote Oil & Gas production
Streamline Innovations’ Valkyrie sulphur removal process is particularly effective in upstream Oil & Gas, where H2S is abundant in the production process. The company deploys its proprietary process on skids at remote sites that often have no daytime access for staffing, which introduces several unique challenges.
The Valkyrie process consists of two chemical reactions that must be controlled in an exquisitely narrow band. Throughout operations, the process must adapt to minute-to-minute and day-to-day changes in gas flow rates and H2S concentration. Additionally, the team must closely control, monitor, and maintain the pumps, filters, lines, and valves—conventional industrial equipment—that handle multiphase material. Streamline Innovation’s complex process therefore required precise control of both the chemical process and the mini plant.
Effective monitoring requires on-site trained experts around-the-clock. But given the remote locations, the team must work with very low data connectivity. Streamline Innovation sought to address these challenges and do more with less by bringing intelligence to their oilfield process and meeting customers’ automation budgets.
Using Stratus edge computing platforms [from Penguin Solutions], we have built smart plants that are managed remotely by artificial intelligence and visible from any location 24/7.
Peter Photos CTO
Streamline Innovations
Stratus edge computing platforms open the door
to intelligent oilfield equipment
Streamline Innovations selected the Stratus ztC Edge computing platform from Penguin Solutions to maximize process reliability and bring new remote capability and intelligence to its Valkyrie process.
Dr. Peter Photos, Chief Technology Officer of Streamline Innovations explained: “We spent a tremendous amount of time testing out a lot of different edge computing devices and finding the right technology. We were first attracted to the potential of Stratus ztC Edge because it offered truly redundant processing. Two Stratus ztC Edge units operate as a redundant pair, which means that if one unit fails for any reason, the other can continue without a break in service. The elimination of downtime is unmatched in the edge computing environment.”
“Another huge advantage became obvious as we explored the Stratus ztC Edge’s virtualization capability to solve our client’s specific requirements. We’re running three virtual machines. Our first virtual machine is Inductive Automation Ignition running our OPC Server and data acquisition.
The second virtual machine is a PostgresSQL database, and our third virtual machine is a Python Linux Box, running Python scripts. With the extensive computing power availability of Stratus ztC Edge, we’re able to get a nice, chunky powerful computer that’s able to do all the calculations we want.”
Photos continued, “So we have the Valkyrie connected to a programmable logic controller (PLC), which is performing minute-to-minute calculations. We have the Stratus ztC Edge that is doing real-time calculations, running Python, collecting historical data, running Ignition, and communicating via the Wi-Fi. The data is sent to an Azure database out in the cloud where we do day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month computations. It is integrated with Seeq, an artificial intelligence software that calculates our sophisticated modelling.
“The Valkyrie Intelligence Platform is now a standalone box that can be integrated into an existing unit and applied for any process. It is powered by Penguin Solutions with Seeq running in the background doing artificial intelligence and complex calculations like predictive maintenance.”
Architecture for data collection and tiered intelligence
The VIP provides intelligence across multiple tiers. The PLC is on the first tier, Stratus ztC Edge runs on the next layer, and the cloud is the topmost tier. Each tier has a specific role that makes the most of its inherent strengths for example, taking advantage of the strong bandwidth between the PLC and the Stratus ztC Edge to manage large volumes of data in real time. Where the bandwidth falls between the edge and the cloud environments, less data is transmitted, enabling the huge processing power of the cloud to do much heavier calculations. This allowed Streamline Innovations to run machine learning, which feeds information back to operational management, enabling predictive and preventive maintenance at a site level.
With the Stratus ztC Edge platform’s virtual machines and power, Streamline Innovations is able to continue to iterate and incorporate new intelligence. Dr. Photos added, “We have JavaScript. We have Python scripts. We have a modem, let’s go to the National Weather Service. We pull in the forecast for the next six hours of weather and we determine our heater temperature based off of that. We’re able to shut down our units during tornado warnings.”
Remote customer deployment in the Permian Basin
Streamline Innovations deployed multiple Valkyrie units for a Super Valkyrie customer project—running on Stratus ztC Edge—in Pecos, Texas to treat 16 million cubic feet of gas. The project comprises three amine plants and three remote Valkyrie skids spread across eight miles. The customer required a minimum of 95% uptime and had a set budget.
Using its intelligent platform, Streamline Innovations connected its units to a TropOS WAN to enable remote control room visibility and connection by mobile devices. While such a solution would normally require six full-time operators and extensive on-call maintenance capabilities to run 24/7, the goal was to operate with two full-time personnel and minimal offsite maintenance staff.
From the firm’s San Antonio headquarters, teams monitor 50 KPIs from the remote units. The Inductive Automation Ignition software running in the control room directs maintenance and callouts, making diagnostics and repairs more efficient. With the additional machine learning and predictive maintenance capabilities, maintenance is less frequent and more effective.
Dr. Photos explains, “What the operator sees in the control room, the skids, and in the San Antonio HQ are all the same. Our control system supervises the entire unit, and that gives us tremendous value.”
New opportunities for oilfield intelligence
The Super Valkyrie project using Penguin Solutions Stratus ztC Edge enabled smart amine plants and units to run at 99.5% uptime—comfortably exceeding the 95% minimum stipulated by the customer with full visibility, functionality, and analysis from a central control room hours away. Staffing requirements were reduced 66%, which helped meet the customer’s automation budget.
“Having seen what the Stratus edge computing platform is capable of in a complex solution such as the Valkyrie, it’s clear that edge technology has a lot to offer the Oil & Gas industry—smart wellheads, smart glycol units, smart Joule Thomson (JT) skids, and more.
“We’ve made Valkyrie Intelligent Platform a turnkey package, which is what makes it so simple. And with the remote monitoring capability, it all becomes modular. We are taking the Penguin Solutions technology that is available off the shelf and putting it into boxes and turning an operational technology project into a service.”
Contact Us
With this approach, there’s no barrier to building smart equipment to span the entire Oil & Gas pathway from the wellhead to sales. Edge is the future of IT and OT.
Peter Photos CTO Streamline Innovations
For sales queries, please contact sales@penguinsolutions.com
To learn more about Stratus ztC Edge from Penguin Solutions, please visit: www.penguinsolutions.com