To get more info, contact GK9S directly to receive a Scope of Work.
What we do
Respond
Respond to any location in the United States, Canada and to any country overseas through collaboration with the client.
Evaluate
Evaluate the pipeline by deploying our dogs. Regardless of the length of the pipeline, the diameter, whether it is buried or above ground, our operational expertise will ensure it is done correctly.
Resolve
Resolve to discover any leaks no matter how microscopic. By utilizing the dogs, we accurately pinpoint the exact location of a leak so that the client can get back into operation quickly.
About Global K9 Solutions LLC - Trust The dog
Joshua Ureneck, Owner
With over 20 years of law enforcement service and more than 15 years as a detection canine handler, Joshua Ureneck brings operational experience and global expertise to the field of working dogs. For over a decade, he has served as both a canine trainer and an instructor for handler-canine teams, specializing in precision detection of various narcotic substances and ensured canine teams were ready for deployment. His background also includes 10 years as a track and trail handler, including 8 years as an instructor, deploying to complex and remote terrain locations, gaining real-world experience.
No stranger to working in remote areas under harsh conditions, Joshua is recognized internationally for his expertise having traveled to Mozambique and Belize to train anti-poaching ranger units. He has also trained and deployed detection canines in Canada and throughout the U.S. for agricultural virus detection across various farmlands.
Although Joshua is originally from Boston, he lived and worked throughout Asia for 14 years, becoming fluent in Mandarin Chinese and brings strong cross-cultural communication skills to any job.
Today, his work is focused on training specialized detection canines for pipeline leak identification across oil, gas, water, wastewater, and other carrier systems. Leveraging decades of field experience, he started Global K9 Solutions LLC – “Trust the Dog” to provide canine-based detection solutions capable of responding to, evaluating, and resolving pipeline integrity concerns quickly and accurately. To accomplish the needs of any job size, Joshua manages multiple canine teams trained for detection that are ready to deploy.
How it Works
Background
A significant and ongoing challenge faced by the petroleum, chemical and water industries is the ability to reliably detect and discover the precise location of leaks in transportation pipelines. Existing technologies frequently struggle not only to confirm the presence of a leak, but more critically, to accurately identify its exact location. While the determination of whether a pipeline is leaking is important, the ability to precisely locate the source of a leak remains the greater technical and economic challenge.
More than thirty different leak-detection techniques are currently employed within the pipeline industry. These methods span a wide range of technologies, including systems based on odorants, radioactive or chemical tracers, acoustics monitoring, dyes, smart pigs, electromagnetic detection, mass-balance analysis, hydrostatic testing, transient pressure-wave monitoring, reflectometry, thermal imaging, infrared sensing, and diffusion-based techniques.
Although many of these methodologies have demonstrated limited success, none has consistently and economically proven capable of locating very small or pin-hole leaks, particularly in underground pipelines. In many cases, subsurface leaks are only identified after significant product loss has occurred, as indicated by mass-balance discrepancies, or after leaked material migrates to the surface and becomes visible. Such delays often result in environmental contamination and substantial economic losses.
A strategy traditionally used to locate leaks in pipelines involves the addition of an odorant to a hydrostatic test-fluid, followed by efforts to detect the odorant at or near ground level. While such approaches have been employed historically, they have generally demonstrated limited reliability in accurately locating small leaks, particularly in subsurface pipelines.
One limitation of this approach is that conventional field instrumentation, including gas detectors ("sniffers") and portable gas chromatographs, although capable of detecting odorants under controlled conditions, often lack the practical sensitivity, deployment efficiency, and operational adaptability necessary to consistently detect the extremely low odorant concentrations that typically reach the surface under real-world field conditions. These limitations are especially evident when attempting to localize small or pin-hole leaks.
A second, and often more significant, limitation arises from the chemical behavior of the odorants commonly employed in such techniques. Mercaptan-based odorants are at least partially water-soluble and tend to migrate with the aqueous phase of the hydrostatic test-fluid. As a result, the odorant may disperse laterally or vertically away from the actual leak site prior to detection, leading to imprecise or erroneous determinations of leak location.
Even in instances where odorant-based detection methods yield positive indications, the resulting lack of spatial precision frequently necessitates excavation or investigation over a broad area. This can impose substantial economic penalties, including increased equipment usage, labor requirements, and operational downtime, to ultimately identify the true source of a leak.
Therefore, there exists an industry need for a leak-detection system capable of consistently and accurately locating leaks in both underground and above ground pipeline systems.
Summary of the Method
The method described herein relates to a process for detecting and precisely locating leaks in pipelines and associated facilities using a specialized leak detection test fluid blend which we call the GK9S Blend. The method is designed to improve spatial accuracy while minimizing operational disruption.
In accordance with this method, the GK9S Blend is introduced into a pipeline. When a leak is present, a portion of the mixture escapes at the leak site. An odorant component within the mixture, due to its specific chemical and physical properties, separates preferentially from the remaining mixture components and becomes detectable in the immediate vicinity of the leak. This localized release enables our trained detection canines to accurately identify and pinpoint the precise leak location in both above ground and subsurface pipeline installations under a wide range of operating conditions.
In a preferred embodiment, the GK9S Blend consists of a selected chemical component combined with a mutual solvent and, when required, water. The proportions of these components may be adjusted based on several factors such as the ambient temperature and specific technical or operational requirements.
Detailed Description
As mentioned above, the advantages of this method are achieved using a special GK9S Blend. This system differs fundamentally from conventional odorant-based leak-detection methods in several key respects.
First, the method operates primarily within the liquid phase rather than the gaseous phase. Second, the blend enables the precise localization of very small or pin-hole leaks in both underground and above-ground pipeline systems. In this approach, the blend serves as a precise locator of the leak rather than a general area indicator.
The chemical component selected for use possesses a vapor pressure sufficient to allow migration from a leak site through soil to the surface without significant absorption by the surrounding soil. The blend has a strong, identifiable scent, is relatively insoluble in water, is used at concentrations below established occupational exposure limits, is readily available, and is cost-effective.
In one method, the blend is combined with a carrier fluid to ensure uniform dispersion throughout the blend for the duration of the operation. The blend is at least partially soluble in the mutual solvent, which prevents separation or portioning from other blend components. Depending on operational requirements, including use at temperatures below the freezing point of water, the most appropriate mutual solvent or combination of solvents may be selected.
The physical characteristics of the odorant ensure that a detectable vapor plume rises directly above the leak site, allowing detection in the immediate vicinity of the leak regardless of whether the pipeline is above or below ground. This behavior overcomes limitations associated with mercaptan-based systems, where higher water solubility causes the odorant to migrate with the aqueous phase and disperse over a broad area, significantly reducing location accuracy.
In practice, leaks are detected by introducing the blend into the pipeline and monitoring for the presence of the odorant at the surface near the pipeline route. In one option, the blend is circulated during the hydrostatics testing once a pipeline is known to be leaking, with the pipeline temporarily removed from surface. Another option would be to shut down the pipeline and partially or fully fill the pipeline with the blend. Another method, preferred for gas or LPG pipelines, the blend may be injected directly into the gas stream without the solvent.
The method of injection may vary; however, conventional injection pumps, such as those used for mercaptan odorization of natural gas, are preferred. This method minimizes pipeline downtime and allows leak detection and localization to be performed while the pipeline remains in service.
The Results
Our canine teams are highly trained in detecting the GK9S Blend. At Global K9 Solutions LLC - Trust the Dog we spend years maintaining and refining their abilities as detection canines and they are continuously exposed to a wide range of challenging terrain and environmental conditions. Our unique training ensures that each canine will remain focused on the hunt – the pursuit of the specific GK9S odor they are trained to detect – while disregarding all potential distractions. To a canine, this work is a game: pinpointing the location of a leak to earn their reward.
For our canine handlers and us here at Global K9 Solutions LLC, the primary objective of our partnership is to ensure that you can “Trust the Dog” to locate a leak quickly and accurately to get your operations back up and running. Our ability to Respond, Evaluate and Solve the problem will provide the assurance that if there is a leak present in the portion of the pipeline our teams are deployed to investigate, it will be found.
