The Quest for Responsibly Sourced Gas

The oil and natural gas industry is unsurprisingly the largest industrial source of methane gas emissions in the US—emitting more methane on its own than the total emissions of all greenhouse gasses from 164 countries combined, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In recent years, this exorbitant high emission rate has driven consumers, investors, and government agencies alike to put the oil and gas industry under increased scrutiny. From upstream production through midstream transport, there’s more attention being given to responsibly sourced gas production than ever before. 

On the part of oil producers and their customers, the utility companies, they’re eager to embrace the idea of responsibly sourced methane gas. Not only would cleaner production help us meet emissions-reduction goals, branding even some of a company’s output as “responsibly sourced” is a huge draw for investors. The challenge you face in your pursuit of producing more responsibly sourced gas is understanding where the weak points in your operations exist. Only then can you shore up your infrastructure and prevent future methane leaks from occurring. 

Methane Leak Monitoring: Intermittent Vs. Continuous 

Throughout the oil and gas supply chain, methane leaks have likely been underestimated in the past. This is largely due to insufficient monitoring requirements. Even today, companies can go out once every few months and monitor for potential leaks with a handheld Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) device, and that is considered satisfactory. However, this practice of intermittent monitoring fails to quickly identify fugitive leaks and allow you to resolve them in a timely manner. 

Continuous monitoring, on the other hand, allows companies to significantly reduce the amount of methane emissions they’re releasing into the atmosphere by identifying leaks when they happen. When leaks are caught early and repaired quickly, not only does this lead to cleaner production, it saves companies millions of dollars. 

A recent report from the Environmental Defense Fund and Carbon Mapper found that, for the last three years, around thirty oil and gas facilities across the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico are responsible for emitting the equivalent annual climate pollution of half a million cars. Repairing the leaks at these facilities would save around $26 million in escaped natural gas. 

From a due diligence standpoint, continuous leak monitoring is the best choice if you want to produce more responsibility sourced gas, but it’s not necessarily the easier choice. In order to reap the benefits of this practice without overextending your resources, you need to think about leak monitoring strategically. 

Where Should You Monitor? 

To understand where you need to monitor your operations for methane leaks, you must first determine why equipment leaks in the first place. In general, we can categorize leaks in three ways: those caused by poor design, those caused by human error, and those caused by super emitter events. 

Poor Design: 

These are the instances in which human interference cannot be blamed for a malfunction. Sometimes, pieces of equipment and their components simply have a faulty design that results in more frequent leaks. An excellent example of this is pneumatic controllers (also called pneumatic devices). These components were installed decades ago to control the flow rate of oil and gas lines. The technology used at the time was ultimately a cheap, quick fix, and the result now is that they leak constantly and require replacement. Other sources of leaks that can be blamed on poor design include compressors and the drivers for compressors. 

Human Error: 

As long as we have human beings working in the oil and gas industry, the risk of accidents and mistakes will always be present. Whether workers don’t understand or properly follow the established procedures, or a piece of equipment isn’t properly maintained, the consequences of human error should always be of concern. Overtorqued bolts on flanges, improperly installed disk gaskets, and worn down O-rings that were never replaced are just a few examples of human errors that could result in leakage. 

Super Emitter Events

Super emitter events are site-based leaks that emit large volumes of methane into the atmosphere over a period of time. According to a recent study, super emitter events represent 8-12% of global methane emissions from oil and gas operations. Sometimes, these episodic events happen by design (condensate flashing, liquids unloadings, etc.), but these intentional events alone could not explain the frequency of super emitter events. Therefore, we have to assume that abnormal process conditions, such as malfunctions caused by poor design or human error, are responsible for at least some super emitter events. 

Super emitter events can occur anywhere throughout oil and gas production and transmission, but they most often occur around storage vessels, well completions, casinghead ventings, and liquids unloading. 

Creating a Strategy for Continuous Monitoring 

The continuous monitoring strategy you employ will differ based on the size of your operations and the resources you have available to dedicate to this undertaking. While large operators have the means to monitor a multitude of upstream and midstream locations, smaller operators may need to be more strategic to ensure monitoring efforts have the most impact. If you’re a small driller, pick out key areas—places with poor design, where mistakes or accidents are most likely to cause leaks, or where super-emitting events are known to occur. These are the locations that will most benefit from leak monitoring sensors. Also, keep in mind that the best solution will leverage a mix of technologies, and will alert technicians to assess the cause and scope of the leak.

When it comes to the sensors themselves, you’ll want to utilize a combination of point sensors and open path sensors. A point sensor will pick up a gas when the molecules encounter it, such as when the wind blows it in the sensor’s direction. You can place point sensors both downwind and upwind of a desired location. While more costly, adding point sensors at multiple heights can be helpful to ensure upward-emitting plumes are not missed by lower point sensors. A pair of open path sensors use a laser to catch the gas as the wind carries it and can be especially useful to monitor methane gas escaping the site’s perimeter, acting as a fall-back to leaks missed by the point sensors due to the wind.

Finally, a monitoring solution is equipped with an anemometer to obtain the speed and direction in which the wind is moving at the time of each methane reading. This provides insight as to which point sensor is nearest to the leak, allowing technicians to begin their assessment. Understanding wind direction is an important aspect of continuous methane monitoring, as a point sensor installed next to a junction may provide a low reading if there is no barrier preventing the wind from blowing the methane away from the sensor. 

Unless you’re planning to set up the entire system of methane sensors all at once, you’ll also need a system capable of scaling as you expand your monitoring efforts. At the center of EDG’s continuous methane monitoring solution is our Methane Monitoring Unit (MMU). Each MMU is equipped with a cellular IoT gateway, Li-Ion smart battery charger, and anemometer. The MMU uses a WirelessHART® receiver to monitor a local array of fixed point methane sensors. Any number of MMUs can be monitored through the EDG Client Portal dashboard regardless of their location, and additional MMUs can be onboarded at any time. Similarly, the array of point sensors monitored by a single MMU can easily be expanded.

Once your point sensors are set up, activating continuous methane monitoring is as simple as flipping a switch on each MMU. The cellular IoT gateway within will lock to the strongest available network connection, and sensor data from the fixed point sensors and anemometer will begin to transmit to the EDG Client Portal at user-defined intervals. On the Client Portal’s dashboard, you’re able to monitor wind direction and wind speed at the MMU over time, allowing you to track methane plumes back to the coordinates of individual sensors. This combined data will be at your fingertips in its raw unmodified format, and will help your technicians quantify the size, concentration, and location of a leak. Harness the true power of continuous monitoring by setting up SMS and email alerts in the Client Portal, allowing your team to quickly respond to methane leaks.

The path to more responsibly sourced gas begins with a commitment to continuously monitoring for methane leaks. And with EDG, continuous monitoring can finally be quick, easy, and reliable. Learn more about EDG’s remote IoT monitoring solution or contact us today to start building your continuous monitoring platform.

Utilizing IoT in a Methane Gas Monitoring System

After CO2, many are surprised to learn that methane (CH4) is the largest contributor to global warming. Its unique qualities, such as high heat-trapping potential and relatively short lifespan in the atmosphere, mean that cutting methane emissions can have an outsized impact on the trajectory of the world's climate in the short-term. One of the largest sources of methane emissions in the US actually comes in the form of leaks originating from oil and gas operations. In 2020, it was estimated that there were 630,000 leaks in US natural gas distribution mains (that’s 30% of all methane emissions in the US). 

For the first time, the US is taking steps to address the eyebrow-raising amount of methane released into the atmosphere via leakage. The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it intends to limit the methane coming from roughly one million existing oil and gas rigs across the United States. At the center of its proposal are requirements for oil and gas operators to aggressively detect and repair methane leaks. Specifically, the proposal will require companies to: 

• Ban the venting of methane produced as a byproduct of crude oil into the atmosphere

• Require upgrades to equipment such as storage tanks, compressors, and pneumatic pumps

• Monitor 300,000 of their biggest well sites every three months

It’s more vital than ever for oil and gas companies to implement a methane gas monitoring system, if you haven’t done so already. And, even if you have, there are still many opportunities to improve upon your current data collection processes and equipment used. Below, we explore the benefits of utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT) in a monitoring system, allowing you to manage sensors distributed over remote areas, retain and centralize data, and target infrastructure and pipeline repairs.

IoT in a Methane Gas Monitoring System

There is no one-size-fits-all methodology for methane gas monitoring. In Colorado, the first state to regulate methane from the oil and gas industry, companies have been incentivized to innovate on this front since 2014. In the past, operators have used super-cooled cameras to film equipment (also known as optical gas imaging, OGI), flown drones over oil and gas sites to detect leaks in the area, and even employed long-range lasers in the hunt for methane leaks. IoT is simply another example of innovation, one that has a lot of benefits for both companies and regulators. An IoT methane gas monitoring system can act as an alternative to the aforementioned methods on its own, but it can also act effectively in conjunction with these monitoring solutions, as well.

Data Collection

Many methods for collecting data on methane leakage require personnel to be present at the site and/or actively carrying out measurement procedures. For example, aerial surveillance using drones, planes, and satellites is used to scan for leaks, methods that require time and financial investment, and are most helpful in detecting emissions from large point sources. When used on their own, issues translating atmospheric data into actionable intelligence to see what’s happening on the ground may arise, as well. For that reason, it’s smart to employ multiple methods for leak detection in tandem with one another, and an IoT-based platform is equipped to interface with your current leak detection and repair (LDAR) methodologies.

IoT sensors are installed on-site, and can include a mix of fixed point methane sensor transmitters and open path (laser-based) methane detectors. Together, they remotely monitor methane emissions and send this data back to a central management console at regular intervals to be analyzed. Being more passive, this form of data collection eliminates the risk of human error in the process. OGI, for instance, requires highly experienced surveyors who are very familiar with the equipment to get the most accurate readings. Remote IoT sensors do not face this challenge and can be a great asset in compiling a reliable database. 

Documentation of data related to leak detection also remains free of the risk of simple human error. In an IoT system, information is transmitted to the cloud via a cellular control system, and retained in a single, digital location without the need for anyone to physically visit a site or manually record data.  IoT sensors could also monitor other environmental conditions such as wind speed and direction, data that will be vital from a public safety standpoint. 

Data Retention and Centralization 

As guidance and regulations continue to evolve regarding LDAR procedures, your ability to retain and save data in its raw, unmodified form will become increasingly important. With the implementation of robust IoT cloud infrastructure, data from many disparate sources can be unified into a central database. When you’re able to eliminate data fragmentation, standardize data collection, and sustainably generate readings over time, the rate of accurate leak detection increases, more strategic decisions can be made about where and when to make repairs, and your company’s overall progress can be tracked (whether it be for regulatory reasons or internal reasons). Overall, maintaining a database will make compliance much easier for your company in the long run. 

Targeting Repairs

When methane leaks are detected on site, regulators will outline procedures necessary to fix them. This could require equipment to be shut down and operations to pause, so it’s extremely important that leaks were correctly detected and reported initially. The benefit of an IoT-based methane gas monitoring system is that it decreases the number of human touchpoints, meaning data can be easily tracked from collection to transmission to analysis, and operators can have a higher level of confidence in the identification of leaks and targeting of repairs. 

Retaining a database of methane leakage data also allows operators to better understand where leaks typically occur and which components present the largest risk. Tanks, for example, have been known to be a common culprit for leaks, and they may need to be subjected to increased monitoring. This knowledge can only be ascertained with detailed recordkeeping conducted over time, something difficult to accomplish with more traditional methods of LDAR. Of course, in the immediate period following repairs, a methane gas monitoring system is still critical to ensure a leak hasn’t redeveloped. So, at every stage of LDAR, you’ll reap the benefits of implementing an IoT solution. 

EDG Has the Tools & Technology to Reduce Methane Gas Leaks

It’s important to invest the time, energy, and resources into LDAR procedures to ensure you’re doing it right the first time and complying with regulations. If the oil and gas industry in the US can successfully eliminate fugitive methane emissions, it will go a long way towards combating the effects of climate change globally in the short term. (After all, North America is responsible for 25% of all methane emissions in the world.)

To create the most reliable, accurate and user-friendly methane gas monitoring system, EDG has developed a complete, end-to-end IoT solution. From the hardware to the cloud infrastructure to the software you use to manage it all, EDG’s technologies put data at your fingertips. If you’re interested in learning more, would like to speak to an expert, or are ready to utilize remote sensors in your monitoring process, contact EDG today! We’d love to hear from you.

The Value of Third-Party Data Collection in Your CO2 Monitoring System

Many activities of modern human life have altered the carbon cycle; power generating facilities, petrochemical plants, cement production plants, cars and trucks, industrial processes, and agricultural practices all produce CO2 and release it into the environment. Some of this CO2 is naturally sequestered in plants, soils, and the ocean, but to offset these increasing emissions, additional forms of carbon sequestration will be necessary. That’s where geologic CO2 sequestration, also known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), comes into play. CCS is the process of storing carbon dioxide (CO2) in underground geologic formations. To do this, the CO2 is usually pressurized until it becomes a liquid, then it’s injected into porous rock formations in geologic basins.

CO2 sequestration is important because power plants may need to put CO2 into the earth rather than releasing it to protect the Earth’s atmosphere, but there are currently no federal environmental regulations that are specific to CCS projects or associated pipelines. However, there are many federal environmental laws and regulations, often in coordination with state regulatory agencies, that enable federal agencies to influence efforts across the CCS value chain, such as The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), and the Clean Water Act. 

In addition, The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) requires large GHG emission sources, fuel and industrial gas suppliers, and carbon dioxide and oxide injection sites in the US to report greenhouse gas (GHG) data and other relevant information, including information regarding the capture, supply, and underground injection of carbon dioxide and oxide. Regulations governing CCS provide a mechanism for facilities to monitor their activities and report the amounts of carbon dioxide they sequester to the EPA. 

Before CO2 injection, targeted reservoirs must be modeled using multiscale and multiphysics numerical simulations coupled with field observations to assess the reservoir’s ability to securely sequester CO2. It’s necessary to monitor the evolution of CO2, the reservoir, and the caprock both before and after the injection. To ensure the process has been done correctly and no CO2 is escaping into the atmosphere, a CO2 monitoring system is required. 

Using a CO2 Monitoring System in Monitoring & Verification

Monitoring 

A CO2 monitoring system is necessary throughout the lifecycle of a project to: 

• Characterize the suitability of sites before an injection project begins

• Monitor an injection site (e.g., formation pressure, plume-spread, leak detection, etc.) while the injection is in progress and during immediate post-closure operations

• Operate a site safely and effectively

• Assess possible site expansions

• Remediate problems at all stages of the life cycle

• Determine when a site should move from post-closure to long-term stewardship

• Monitor during long-term stewardship

So, how does monitoring & verification (M&V) work? It starts with sensor monitoring, as this must occur before CO2 sequester sites are set up to understand the baseline emissions of the earth. Then, each site’s CO2 levels will need to be monitored again after initial setup to make sure the CO2 is successfully being sequestered. By subtracting the baseline, you ensure there’s no false measurement of CO2. 

While CO2 monitoring is undoubtedly important, it isn’t without its challenges. Traditionally, monitoring would require a technician to visit each of the sites and record the CO2 reading, requiring regular travel to and from the location, and a reliance on manual readings that suffer from inconsistencies (human error, different recording methodologies, etc.). Luckily, there is a simple solution. Using a remote CO2 monitoring system saves time and money on travel, eliminates human error, and increases the number of readings you can take each week, improving the overall dataset. 

Data Retention

When you rely on a CO2 monitoring system, there is a lot of value in using a third party. CCS projects are increasing in frequency and global significance as regulatory entities, investors, and shareholders further drive the demand for decarbonization and sustainability, but since relatively few CCS projects have been completed to date, owner companies don’t have access to reliable cost estimates and performance data necessary to inform decision-making. 

There is a need for raw, unmodified data, both for your own future CCS projects and for the industry as a whole – CCS project data collected directly from project teams and participating companies is incredibly valuable. The ability to retain the original dataset allows you to utilize data for modeling on numerous occasions, normalizing it for time, location, and currency differences to enable robust analysis. That’s why when you use EDG to collect site data, you’ll always be able to access the raw, unmodified sensor data – if there’s ever a question about the original data, you’ll have all of the information you need to answer it. 

Combine Disparate Data Sources

Proper monitoring requires gathering data for many different sensors positioned around the site, but collecting and aggregating data from these sensors can be difficult if they aren’t all from the same manufacturer. With EDG, this isn’t an issue. EDG enables devices from different manufacturers (and devices with different protocols) to interface, allowing the data to be merged and viewed together by the software. This makes it far easier to create applications, as it reduces costs, time, and ultimately, headaches.

Verification

The connection between M&V and regulation is in the word “verification” – how monitoring results demonstrates to regulators and other stakeholders that their requirements are being met and CO2 is successfully being contained. The problem is that organizations may be tempted to alter their data to make the results look more favorable. So, to prove that the data they’re presenting is accurate, organizations can opt for third-party verification. EDG, for instance, stores the raw data collected by remote sensors, so even though organizations have the ability to alter the data on their end, you can prove your due diligence by providing raw, unmodified data derived by an unbiased third party. 

Monitor And Verify Your Data With EDG

EDG not only allows organizations to monitor their CO2 sequestration sites from anywhere in the world, but can act as a third party to verify their results to stakeholders and regulating bodies. Our IoT cloud infrastructure allows devices from different manufacturers to interface with one another, spares technicians from having to go to the field to take readings in person, and stores the raw data so you can use it to make deeper analyses and prove your findings. Need a better remote CO2 monitoring system – one that offers third-party verification? Contact EDG today!

How to Set High IoT Security Standards for Your Team

The lack of globally accepted IoT security standards has been an issue in the IoT industry since usage of IoT devices exploded in popularity a decade ago, The industry’s security protocols simply couldn’t keep up with the rapid increase in threats. According to Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 IoT Threat Report, 57% of IoT devices are vulnerable to medium- or high-severity attacks. The sheer number of IoT devices deployed in OT, the insecure deployment of Internet-capable devices, and a lack of security updates for many devices have made IoT networks an easy target for hackers aiming to steal your data. 

Today, there are a few industry standards in place, a significant one being ETSI's EN 303 365, which highlights 13 requirements for manufactures securing their devices. However, many IoT devices do not meet these security guidelines, nor do they have the ability to be updated to meet them, because they were designed and installed before these standards existed. So, it’s up to individual actors to take security into their own hands. Fortunately, you don’t need to sacrifice large amounts of money and resources to implement robust security practices; you just need to commit to security measures early, create a review plan, and make sure these practices are revisited as your IoT network grows. 

Because many IoT devices are not meeting IoT security standards, we recommend following a few easy-to-implement security practices. Here are four measures you can make standard amongst both new and old team members that will help keep your IoT devices secure. 

1) Use a Password Manager

If you aren’t taking passwords seriously, you absolutely should be. After all, your system is only as strong as your weakest password. A vast majority, 81%, of the total number of security breaches leveraged stolen or weak passwords according to the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, so it’s safe to assume that if you haven’t considered passwords to be a weak point of your overall security approach, hackers certainly have. 

Hackers have concocted numerous methods for cracking passwords. Keyloggers, for instance, record all of your keyboard keystrokes, allowing them to see the information you input. They could also try to guess a password by trying out different words from a “dictionary” of common passwords. Or, if you’re still using the default passwords set by device manufacturers, a hacker hardly needs to put forth any effort at all. 

Worse? Those who reuse the same password for multiple accounts are going to see a much larger impact than a user who utilizes unique passwords for each of their accounts. A hacker who obtains your password and email can easily attempt that same email and password combination for a list of popular web accounts. By using unique passwords, a breach in one account will not impact the others.

Our Tip: At EDG, we employ a password manager to store and protect our passwords. This not only allows us to keep our passwords complex and unique (without the burden of attempting to remember them or needing to write them down somewhere), it notifies us if a password has been compromised. This gives us the ability to move quickly to change that password and respond to any potential breaches of data. Further, a password manager lets us restrict individual passwords or groups of passwords by setting up user roles with access levels, allowing us to provide account access to team members on an as-needed basis. (This is a great first step to practicing “Zero Trust”, which we’ll expand on later.)

2) Isolate Your IoT Devices

In most circumstances, your IoT devices will need access to the Internet, but if you’re using a Wi-Fi network to access the Internet, you’re exposing your devices to every other entity also using the same network. If another machine on the same network is compromised, it’s all too easy for hackers to use it as an entry point to go after all of the other devices sharing space on the same network. 

Our Tip: Use a dedicated Wi-Fi network (or multiple Wi-Fi networks) to isolate your IoT devices, and set up virtual LANs (VLANs) in your router to segment traffic between the Wi-Fi network of your IoT devices and your other Wi-Fi networks. To truly isolate your devices, make sure you have configured firewalls between each VLAN combination to make sure a device on one VLAN cannot communicate with a device on another VLAN. This will prevent hackers from seeing other devices logged into the same network, other devices logged into networks created by the same router, and other devices connected to the network via an Ethernet cable.

Of course, this tip specifically applies to Wi-Fi-connected devices. If you have the ability to connect your devices to the Internet using a cellular network, you have more inherent security built in since a machine on the same cellular network is less likely to see the other devices on it. (For a more robust cellular network, talk to your cellular device manufacturer about putting your devices on a VPN.) However, cellular networks don’t reach everywhere, and sometimes it makes more sense to use Wi-Fi instead. In those cases, it’s important that you configure these networks appropriately. 

3) Implement a “Zero Trust” Model

The traditional approach to IT security has always been to automatically trust users and endpoints within an organization’s perimeter, but in our modern digital environment, following a “trust but verify” leaves you exposed to ransomware and cyberattacks. A Zero Trust model, on the other hand, follows the principle of “never trust, always verify”. All users, whether in or outside your network, should be authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated for security configuration and posture before being granted or keeping access to apps and data.

Whereas the “trust but verify” model of old implicitly trusted users and assets based solely on their physical or network location, Zero Trust assumes there is no perimeter. For that reason, you should continuously monitor and validate that users and devices have the right privileges and attributes to be connected to your system. In addition to verifying access, Zero Trust helps you limit the damage should a breach occur by segmenting information and mandating additional layers of security. 

Our Tip: Zero Trust is more than just a digital standard for security, its principles should exist at all levels of your organization. At EDG, we have a “need to know” policy. This means we only provide information to team members if and when they need it. If they are not working on an application, we don't give them access to it, and when a team member will no longer be working with us, we follow a strict set of offboarding rules to ensure nothing sensitive leaves with them. Need-to-know access can be as simple as limiting password access to a user with a password manager, or hiding customer contact information from employees who only interface with internal team members.

4) Treat Development Repositories as Sacred

For software development teams, having a code repository is a godsend, offering a central place to save resources that everyone can pull from and more open collaboration channels amongst the team. It does this without sacrificing security. Most repositories have some sort of additional authentication measures and anti-malware protections in place. 

A code repository is only as secure as you make it, though. In 2020 alone, GitGuardian detected over 2 million secrets in public repositories. And, back in 2019, a lapse in password security by a SolarWinds intern — in which the password, “solarwinds123,” was stored on a private GitHub account — may have contributed to the SolarWinds hack. While it’s unclear how significant this leak ultimately was, it still highlights the risks associated when your repository is not properly maintained to high IoT security standards. 

Stack Overflow was made aware of a similar breach in May of 2019, when they discovered that a new user had gained moderator and developer level access across all of the sites in the Stack Exchange Network — which barely scraped the surface of what the attack truly entailed. After a deep analysis of the breach, the team realized that their repository URL was inadvertently referenced in a public GitHub repo containing some of their open source code. Stack Overflow has since made a number of changes to how they structure access to their systems and manage secrets to prevent attacks such as this from occurring in the future. 

Our Tip: It’s imperative that you treat your repositories as sacred places. All too often when we work with outside teams, we notice that their developers opt to store passwords and other app secrets on central repositories that everyone has access to. This is a huge violation of the Zero Trust doctrine in which information is segmented and nobody has access to something they don’t explicitly need. If a team member somewhere has access to a repository on their machine, any passwords or app secrets within it are at risk of being stolen should that machine fall into the wrong hands. 

Your IoT Data is Safe With EDG

Engineering Design Group (EDG) offers a complete IoT ecosystem for companies to monitor their distributed sensors from anywhere in the world. With EDG, find the hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure you need to build a secure, scalable, robust IoT system without sinking your own time and money into developing one from scratch. Whether we’re working with you to build a custom mobile app or you’re making use of our Client Portal to see all of your data in one place, EDG follows the strictest IoT security standards and protocols in the industry. If you’re interested in learning more about how our end-to-end solution enables you to seamlessly and securely collect IoT data, contact EDG today!

Bidirectional Environmental Monitoring Equipment: The Future of IoT

At the core of every IoT system are the “things”, the sensors deployed into the environment to collect and transfer data back to the Cloud. This environmental monitoring equipment serves as our eyes and ears out in the field, keeping us updated on current conditions and alerting us to potential problems. Almost all entities, such as homes, office buildings, factories, and even entire cities are connected to an IoT network to collect data and utilize the information for various purposes. 

IoT devices have the ability to gather and process a wide array of information about the environmental and operating conditions around them, and a lot depends on the type of sensors you utilize in your system. One of the biggest determining factors for your system’s capabilities is whether the devices you use allow for unidirectional or bidirectional communication. 

The Basics of Environmental Monitoring Equipment in IoT

The applications of IoT in environmental monitoring are numerous. This technology could be used for the purposes of monitoring weather conditions, water purity, temperature, air quality, and much more. The role that IoT sensors play in the system is simply to detect and measure any type of external information and replace it with a signal that humans and machines will understand. This signal is then sent back to a central management console where it can be analyzed.

Depending on the sensors available on the market that meet the demands of your application, your hardware may need to support a variety of different sensor interfaces. Common bus interfaces for IoT applications include the I2C bus, SPI bus, and UARTs, but may also be as simple as general purpose I/O, or single pin interfaces that can be used for analog-to-digital conversions, or PWMs.

The versatility of environmental monitoring equipment allows it to be applied in almost any situation in which some type of environmental condition needs to be observed and analyzed. Examples include but are not limited to: temperature sensors, humidity sensors, CO2 sensors, accelerometers, barometric pressure sensors, air particulate sensors, range finding sensors, strain gauges, motor controllers, GPIO expanders, analog-to-digital converters, and digital-to-analog converters. 

Unidirectional and Bidirectional Flow

Most environmental monitoring equipment is designed to simply collect data about the environment, not to respond in any way as a result of the data. This is known as unidirectional flow; data only goes one way. While applications can read the data the sensor sends them, they can’t send commands back to the equipment in the field. A good example of a unidirectional system is EDG’s environmental monitoring units (EMUs). These cellular- and Wi-Fi-based systems are only designed to monitor data such as temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide and relay it to our Client Portal.  

For many use cases, a unidirectional flow may be enough. In the case of a home security or equipment monitoring system, a simple notification from a sensor is all you need to spur you into action. For that reason, IoT technology in its most basic form has successfully reduced reaction time and improved the quality of task execution in a wide range of industries. 

However, settling with unidirectional environmental monitoring equipment in your IoT system could be limiting its functionality, too. Two-way, or bidirectional, devices allow for communication between the device and the management console and vice versa. In our everyday lives, this isn’t a foreign concept to us. If you’ve ever received a phone call on your mobile device and declined it from your smartwatch, you’ve seen two-way communication in action. Utilizing a bidirectional flow in an industrial IoT system is a whole other story.

Often, companies simply don’t consider how two-way communication could improve their operating processes. They’re more focused on data management and having the ability to retrieve data from previously disconnected assets that they can integrate into their management software. Making decisions about that data is then done via an entirely different workflow involving technicians physically visiting the site or manually intervening with the system. 

By failing to consider bidirectional environmental monitoring equipment, companies forego many of the advantages this technology lends to operations. With two-way connectivity, you can retire older devices and onboard new ones, recalibrate sensors throughout their lifecycle, take action on critical sensor events, and reconfigure different sensing functions and message frequency to improve battery life — all without being required to physically be on site. 

How Does a Bidirectional IoT Device Function?

Not only does bidirectional flow allow data to be sent from a device to the management console to be read by applications, it allows applications to send commands back to the device, creating a control loop with feedback which the device can respond to. This is how a closed control loop would work in practice using the example of a smart thermostat. 

1. You are about to return home from a trip to a house that is a chilly 62°F. Before you arrive, you want to set the temperature to 68°F so the system can warm up.

2. With a smart thermostat, you’re able to send a command from an application to the thermostat specifying a threshold of 68°F. Until it reaches that threshold, the heating system for the house should turn on and operate while the temperature increases. 

3. A sensor monitors the temperature while the heating system is operating.

4. Once the temperature reaches the specified threshold of 68°F, the control system uses this feedback and closes the loop by turning off the heating system. 

Bidirectional environmental monitoring equipment can be configured to provision more than a simple control loop, though. Take EDG’s environmental control units (ECUs), for instance. They are an evolution of our EMUs and enable two-way connectivity. They have 8 analog inputs which can read a voltage from 0 to 2.5 VDC, and with an app, users can set thresholds for any of these 8 inputs independently. 

In addition to the 8 inputs, ECUs also have 8 output controls called "relays". Effectively, each relay acts as a switch. When a user brings power into them, the relay will either allow power to pass through (when the relay is "closed"), or the relay will block the power from passing through (when the relay is in an "open" state). 

Numerous Applications

The 8 relays on EDG’s ECU100 series have a 5 A switching capacity, and can switch voltages up to 250 VAC or 30 VDC, making them suitable for a wide variety of closed-loop remote control applications:

• Industrial-grade thermostats

• Water flow and tank level monitoring

• Irrigation and sprinkler systems

• Factory equipment control

• Power switching, protection, and circuit breakers

• Alarm response

Addressing Security Concerns of Bidirectional Systems

Like our EMUs, EDG offers ECUs in two varieties: Cellular or Wi-Fi. When using wireless connectivity, there has been a reluctance in the past to utilize bidirectional flow due to data security concerns. The idea of exposing critical operational controls to the Internet usually drives companies to stick with the older, unidirectional systems they know best. However, two-way connectivity can be safe and secure. EDG has taken several precautions to ensure device data and controls are never compromised, including:

• No Default Passwords: The authentication credentials for new EDG devices are always unique. There is never a scenario where a bad actor can enter default information (such as a default password), and establish communication with a device.

• Device-side and User-side Authentication: Each ECU must authenticate with our cloud infrastructure before it can transmit data or receive a command from an application. Additionally, any user or application attempting to read data from or send a command to an ECU must first be verified by our cloud infrastructure. 

• Secure Data Pathways: ECUs use only secured data pathways for communication between the ECU and EDG's cloud infrastructure.

• Lifetime OTA Security Updates: Firmware changes addressing security vulnerabilities are deployed from the EDG factory using over-the-air (OTA) updates. This allows us to keep all deployed systems up to date. As long as the system has an active Internet connection, it will receive these updates. This saves time and money for customers with systems that are in hard to reach places, as they do not need to be disassembled and returned to EDG. An ECU that does not have power applied during an update will automatically be updated the next time power is applied.

Discover an End-to-End IoT Solution

Engineering Design Group (EDG) is more than a provider of innovative environmental monitoring equipment. We offer a complete IoT ecosystem that enables companies to monitor distributed sensors from anywhere in the world. By utilizing our hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure, our customers have everything they need to operate a secure, reliable IoT system without expending money, time, and other resources to build and maintain their own. Our end-to-end solution puts the data in your hands without any of the hassle. 

If the demands of your company require remote monitoring of environmental conditions, equip yourself with the right tools for the job. Our EMUs and ECUs can be remotely monitored and controlled, bringing data from around the globe to your fingertips and allowing your team to respond immediately. Whether you’re interested in learning more about the environmental monitoring equipment we develop or are ready to revolutionize your approach to IoT data collection, contact EDG today!