This IIT-M Student Detected The Need of Innovation in the Oil & Gas Industry The start-up has built the world's first sensor that can monitor the performance of pipelines in real-time at high temperatures for a long range to avoid defects and corrosion.
By Sandeep Soni
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DANIEL RAJ DAVID (23), CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER, DETECT TECHNOLOGIES
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras incubated Detect Technologies is among the unique innovations that India should be proud of. The realization that he had was in industrial space, particularly oil and gas, especially with assets that are static like pipelines, where David saw immense scope for technology development using internet-of-things, deep learning, and predictive monitoring and maintenance. The start-up has built the world's first sensor that can monitor the performance of pipelines in real-time at high temperatures for a long range to avoid defects and corrosion. "Previous technologies could do the same only till temperatures were close to 100-120? celsius. One improvement in technology, especially in this critical space can lead to a plethora of use-cases and advantages. Most critical pipelines are at temperatures between 200 to 400? Celsius," asserts David. Currently India has 40,000 kilometers of pipelines which David sees as a gigantic opportunity to make them smarter and sustainable based on prior data. The start-up has also built the first industrial drone in India to perform automated inspections of large volume assets. The start-up counts every major oil company including Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Reliance Industries and Bharat Petroleum as its customers.
PLUGGING GAP
LAUNCH: February 2016 in Chennai
NO. OF CUSTOMERS: 30+
HEADCOUNT: 35
TOTAL INVESTMENT: $800K
NO. OF PATENTS: 2 and several in process
