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TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY Wireless Valve Position Indication (VPI) Sensor System A wireless system for checking and monitoring industrial plant valves that reduces cost, lowers risks, enhance e... TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY Wireless Valve Position Indication (VPI) Sensor System A wireless system for checking and monitoring industrial plant valves that reduces cost, lowers risks, enhance efficiency, and improves worker safety. Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize the wireless VPI sensor system. Overview: In industrial facilities, valves must be in different positions at different times to enable safe and reliable operation. In one example, a typical nuclear reactor plant, there are hundreds to thousands of manual and/or motorized valves that are operated and verified at periodic intervals varying from weekly to monthly. Currently, this work is done by highly skilled nuclear personnel who secondary and tertiary (sometimes) verification of value manipulation of each valve’s position by physically visiting its location. This labor-intensive process is expensive, is prone to human error, risks exposing workers to hazards (both radiation and other industrial) and can result in inaccurate assessment of valve health. The wireless VPI sensor system lowers these risks by monitoring valve position accurately from a remote location and its installation does not require any physical modification or disassembly. Description: INL’s wireless VPI sensor system brings industrial plants into the modern age by using an automated wireless system to replace the need for manual visual determination and reporting of valve positions with digital verification. The wireless VPI sensor system centers around a modular sensor node that processes and transmits measured valved position data wirelessly to a remote location. The VPI can transmit the data over several widely used communication protocols in the industry. The sensor node is retrofitted to manual valves using a novel universal sensor mounting unit. Importantly, this mounting unit makes it possible to upgrade from a manual verification to digital verification without any requirement to go through recertification, often an expensive and time-consuming process. Once the mounting unit is attached, a magnetic sensor determines the position of the valve. The output data of the magnetic sensor represents the continuous position from open to closed and everything in between. A wireless microcontroller reads data from the magnetic sensor, converts it to digital values and transmits the information to an access point. The valve position is displayed as a percentage open or closed along with a calibrated measured output voltage, allowing verification of the valve position on a screen. Benefits: Up to 95% fewer human error rates 10% lower maintenance and operation costs Potential savings of up to $1 million a day during outages Lowers risk to worker safety Doesn’t require existing valve modification or disassembly Applications: Any industry dealing with fluids, gasses or other controllable substances Oil and gas Nuclear energy Development Status: TRL 7, system prototype demonstration in operation environment. IP Status: Patent Application No. 15/851,442, “Sensor System and Implementation of the Same,” BEA Docket No. BA-937. Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process. Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Kala Majeti at td@inl.gov.