Summary
Pulse Industrial is digitizing industrial steam systems with smart, easy to deploy sensors. More specifically, Pulse provides real-time alerts for failures in ‘steam traps’, which would otherwise go unseen. By managing these failures, industrial plants can reduce energy loss, reduce CO2 emissions, and even avoid downtime on chemical production.
Problem
Approximately 20% of steam traps fail each year which leads to leaks at manufacturing sites, leading to almost $53B worth of lost fuel. Steam accounts for about 45% of the world’s fuel consumption and is used in many different industries. In general, a facility will have an annual inspection of the steam equipment; these are manual audits and paid engagements. A typical audit will result in 10-15% of the traps being marked as needing replacement (which is consistent with the 6-year lifespan). Since the audit is done infrequently, many of these traps may have been in a failed state for long periods of time leading to extreme energy losses. Customers we talked to said it’s fairly common for one failed steam trap to cost a plant over $50 per hour or $8400 per week in fuel expenses.
Solution
Pulse Industrial makes a battery-operated wireless steam trap monitoring solution. The solution consists of a wireless sensor, network gateway, and cloud-based monitoring application. It allows for the remote monitoring of steam equipment, detection of faults, and estimates for potential losses due to steam leakage. The monitor has an easy to use “clamp on” installation method for most pipes found in manufacturing facilities. The monitor makes it cheap and easy for facilities to monitor their steam traps and get alerts in real time, allowing them to easily fix the problem before it causes a major financial burden.
