Drone company Cyberhawk has signed a global teaming agreement with John Zink Hamworthy Combustion (JZHC) to support JZHC with aerial inspections of industrial assets and inspection reporting. JZHC and Cyberhawk engineers will collaborate to analyze and assess all integrity aspects of unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) flare-inspection data, with JZHC providing operational, remediation, or replacement recommendations. A complete and comprehensive report will be presented to the customer following each inspection.
JZHC designs advanced flaring and combustion systems, and, with the advent of safer, more-reliable live UAV flare inspections during the last decade, operators are looking for an aerial inspection components to the systems.
Since completing the first drone flare inspection in 2010, Cyberhawk has inspected more than 800 flares, both onshore and offshore, in more than 30 countries.
During the last decade, the use of drones for industrial asset inspections has grown significantly. The ability to inspect in-service flares can eliminate millions of dollars of operational expenditure. Detection and monitoring of changes to an operational flare system could avoid unplanned shutdowns through early detection. These dollars can be better served by upgrading systems or designing preventative UAV inspection programs.
“Drones have changed the face of complex industrial inspections, with flare inspection being one area in which the most powerful efficiencies can be gained,” said Chris Fleming, Cyberhawk chief executive officer.
The safety risks presented by traditional access methods are also eliminated, including working at significant heights and in a hazardous industrial environment.
Drone-mounted cameras capture detailed visual and thermal data, including from the flare tip, pilot burners, stack, ladders, platforms, molecular seals, and steam lines. The imagery obtained is analyzed, and recommendations are provided. This leads to better maintenance planning and decision-making processes for the customer.
Cyberhawk has teamed up with JZHC to analyze flare-inspection imagery. In many cases, the inspection imagery can indicate operational anomalies. By analyzing Cyberhawk’s imagery, JZHC may be able to identify and recommend actions to mitigate operational issues before they result in punitive regulatory action.
The adoption of drones for asset-integrity inspections has grown significantly in recent years, presenting a further challenge—analyzing the drone data. Cyberhawk’s visual asset inspection software for oil and gas drone data, iHawk, provides cloud-based access to visual inspection data. Historical inspection data can be accessed to compare and evaluate asset integrity over time.