Randburg engineering composite repair company Carbontech Composite Systems successfully rehabilitated a 50-m-long section of a 56” tail gas pipeline in Kazakhstan last month using its high-temperature, carbon fibre-based Revowrap185 rehabilitation system.

Nondestructive testing inspections identified that this section of the pipeline had more than 80% wall loss.  

Revowrap offers a cost-effective alternative to pipeline replacement, which eliminates the need for the pipeline to be isolated or shut down and replaced, as is generally the case. It also removes the need for hot works and can, therefore, be installed on live flammable applications without shutting down the line, says Carbontech CEO Michel Pieterse.

“The Kazakhstan pipeline design is rated for 186 °C and design pressure of 5 Bar. The cost of shutting down the pipeline to replace this section would have cost the client $27-million a day in lost production. Using Revowrap, the entire section of the pipeline was reinforced in nine days without any production loss.”

Developed to address the large number of aging global pipelines that require replacement, the proactive engineered solution extends the lifetime of compromised or aging pipelines for an additional 20 years, he adds.

Introduced in 2018, the Revowrap range was designed and developed in South Africa over three years.

“This involved testing product performance on high-pressure piping in destructive environments as well as in-house and external laboratory testing to ensure product compliance with the international codes that regulate composite repairs on high-risk pipelines (ASME Pcc2 and ISO Ts 24817).”

Carbontech is the only manufacturer of composite repair systems for pipelines in South Africa, highlights Pieterse.

The range includes four products – Revowrap225, Revowrap185, Revowrap110 and Revowrap80 – and can be used to restore aging or damaged assets, such as pipelines, tanks and pressure vessels, to their original design specifications.

The Revowrap product offering is engineered to operate in working temperatures from -50 °C to 233 °C, -50 °C to 208 °C, -50 °C to 109 °C and -50 °C to 84 °C, respectively.

The range is manufactured at Carbontech’s Northriding facility, in Gauteng, by blending mostly locally sourced raw material to ultimately produce the final product. The weaving process is outsourced to a company in Cape Town.

Carbontech can produce 1 750 m² of product a week and keeps stock on hand.

“We are an emergency response manufacturing facility; thus, we always have stock available on the shelves for same day delivery,” explains Pieterse.

Revowrap is predominantly used in the oil and gas, and petrochemicals industries but demand is growing in mining, water transmission and power generation applications.  

“Composite rehabilitation on pipelines is relatively new, especially in the South African market, and most local companies are not aware of the technology and the benefits thereof. Embracing composite repairs over conventional ‘weld patch’ repairs is, at times, received with scepticism, especially from the older generation of engineers that aren’t well versed in composite materials.”

Locally, Revowrap could be applied to address the deteriorating infrastructure of the country’s potable water transmission pipelines, whereby poor maintenance has resulted in daily pipeline failures, highlights Pieterse.

“Revowrap can be used to extend pipeline lifetime for an additional 20 years without interrupting water supply. The same strategy can be applied to fuel transmission lines in Southern Africa.” 

Carbontech supplies more than 50 countries globally and has agencies in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands; Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia; Singapore; Tulsa, in the US; Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates and Perth, in Australia.