The Add Globe captures the gas leaking from vents, valves, ancillary equipment and determines mass leak rates. By accurately measuring the flow rate of the sampling stream and the natural gas concentration within that stream, the mass gas leak rate is calculated. Milton provides more details regarding battery level, sample concentration, background concentration, blower flow rate, leak temperature and quantified leak rate. High Flow Samplers capture all the emissions from a leaking component to accurately quantify leak emissions rates. The training time necessary to use the device is discussed as well as the device appurtenances. The volume accommodated by the new device is 50% higher than the prior version of the high flow sampler.

:04

good afternoon

0:06

welcome to this episode of spilling the

0:09

tea with 4C this episode's titled more

0:13

Milton

0:14

don't skip this one

0:17

so Milton uh Steve

0:21

the

0:23

why does a customer

0:25

Buy

0:27

ad Globes high flow sampler

0:30

so there are two customers out there two

0:33

types of customers the first would be

0:36

somebody who's already doing measurement

0:38

you get the service side service

0:41

providers energy companies themselves

0:43

and they're already doing measurement

0:45

and they're using an old aged back rack

0:49

high flow sampler so that's uh that's a

0:53

group that would

0:55

um

0:56

that would want this product the other

0:58

side of it is those two groups thinking

1:01

about getting into compliance with all

1:03

this new EPA compliance quad OB coming

1:06

into the picture maybe this fall maybe

1:11

2024. so you got a lot of new players

1:14

out there and they're wanting the best

1:17

they want the latest the greatest we

1:18

already know all of the issues uh with

1:21

the back rack high flow sampler it was a

1:24

long

1:24

laundry list of of stuff that had to be

1:28

worked out so if you're looking for a

1:30

modern

1:31

state-of-the-art technology that's

1:34

direct measurement we've poured 17 over

1:37

17 years into this project adglobe has

1:40

to resolve all of those issues to

1:43

deliver a product that is EPA compliant

1:45

it's fast it's it's accurate it's third

1:49

party tested and it is it's a joy to

1:52

work with compared to the previous

1:54

technology because it is a slick design

1:57

and and the list is goes on from there

2:00

so beautiful

2:02

if you have two minutes

2:06

in an elevator with a potential customer

2:09

and

2:11

you have to deliver that compelling

2:13

message what is AD globe's compelling

2:16

message for the high flow sampler

2:18

so we've put together

2:22

a product based on again on over 17

2:25

years of experience

2:27

and where did this experience come from

2:30

ad Globe had delivered over half of the

2:33

Bachrach high flow samplers

2:36

there was about 450 is the number and so

2:40

um that's a lot of product that was

2:43

delivered to Market but the the

2:46

experience and and the expertise behind

2:50

that and knowing the knowledge base that

2:53

went into the research and development

2:55

of this product

2:58

um is it's the result of years of

3:01

experience and a wish list that was a

3:05

mile long and so

3:08

our message is you want the best you

3:12

have a very important job and you want

3:15

to make sure that your operators who are

3:17

working in an extreme environment it's a

3:19

harsh environment out there you don't

3:21

you don't want to be hamstrung with

3:24

something that's big and bulky and going

3:26

to weigh you down because you do need

3:28

other tools on your job to find leaks so

3:32

you want this product because it's slick

3:35

it's lightweight it's got far better

3:39

accuracy it's 50 Improvement on the

3:42

sampling capacity from its predecessor

3:45

and

3:46

um

3:48

as far as being able to calibrate this

3:50

thing you can do it you can do it fast

3:52

you can take your measurements and get

3:55

them fast the data analysis the data

3:59

capture itself is far superior than

4:01

anything that was before it

4:04

and so we know that our customers were

4:07

already getting that type of feedback

4:09

we've got a good customer base that

4:11

we've started out with and we stay close

4:14

to them so we're looking to find out

4:17

what else we can do with it and it's

4:19

more of a software issue at this point

4:21

little tweaks but that's why you want

4:23

this product you you want to get you

4:25

want to start you want to start out

4:27

right and so if you're looking for a

4:29

fresh start

4:30

or you're looking to replace what you

4:33

had previously this is the product for

4:35

you fantastic so someone's out there

4:37

they've got a old background high flow

4:40

sampler doesn't work anymore now they

4:43

have a new Option that's here absolutely

4:45

far superior or if the customer has a

4:50

couple of the old baccarat units and

4:52

they're shipping that thing around then

4:54

the shipping costs is driving them

4:55

through driving them crazy and going

4:57

through the roof now they can buy

4:58

another unit they have a more modern

5:01

unit and they no longer have to ship the

5:04

other one around so much it's funny you

5:06

mentioned shipping because the weight

5:09

and size of this is it's half of what

5:11

the back rack was

5:13

um it's it's less than 10 pounds the

5:16

unit itself so you don't see a big bulky

5:20

instrument here you can fit this in half

5:22

of a Samsonite

5:24

um

5:26

bag

5:27

um you know they've got a big bag out

5:29

there so half of that bag you can you

5:32

can fit this whole thing in comfortably

5:34

and put your other tools in the other

5:36

side of the bag you know pre the

5:38

previous back rack sampler would take up

5:41

that whole bag

5:42

excellent so uh how does it work how

5:45

does this unit work

5:47

so it's a high volume sampler think of

5:49

it like a vacuum cleaner you you've got

5:51

your Sam main sampling line that is

5:54

pulling in a sample in this case we're

5:58

up to 12.36 cubic feet per minute

6:00

backrock was doing about eight maybe a

6:04

little bit better than eight cubic feet

6:06

on a fully charged battery so we've

6:08

increased the capacity of the sampling

6:10

rate by 50 percent and better lead

6:13

capture

6:14

um and so inside

6:17

the instrument you're measuring you're

6:19

pulling in air you're pulling in The

6:21

Fugitive methanes methane emissions

6:23

themselves and you have a sensor that is

6:26

pulling and measuring a concentration

6:29

within that mixed air sample line and so

6:33

your your measuring flow you're

6:36

measuring concentration to derive your

6:40

volumetric leak rate now this does have

6:43

two sensors on it so we've got two

6:45

sensor blocks and two sensor blocks is

6:48

important it was on the back rack unit

6:50

and it was well thought out

6:53

um and so we didn't see any reason to to

6:57

not include a secondary sampling sensor

7:01

on this and so you want the ability to

7:05

um

7:06

to have your background

7:09

looked at you want to consider your

7:12

background in case you you have multiple

7:15

leaks in the area you want to subtract

7:17

that from the leak that you're measuring

7:20

and the other reason you want to have a

7:22

background is to use for quality

7:25

assurance to ensure that you've got

7:27

complete capture of the leak you're

7:29

intending to measure because you might

7:31

not you might have some slippage you

7:33

might have the the leak is floating

7:35

around and it hasn't been completely

7:37

captured so if you have a an ogi

7:42

operator there looking with the camera

7:44

you can see this stuff pretty readily

7:46

but that's not a practical situation

7:48

today having two people out there so

7:52

if I can just demonstrate yeah so on the

7:56

uh on the sampling

7:59

nozzle here here's our admission Source

8:02

okay

8:03

so he here's our background it's pulling

8:05

in a sample here main sample line so

8:07

we're going to go up to the leak

8:09

and assuming that we're getting complete

8:12

capture we're going to go around the

8:13

circumference of the nozzle here to make

8:16

sure that we do in fact have uh captured

8:19

leak and we're going to see that on our

8:21

display

8:22

um and so so the reading that's coming

8:24

from this particular one will show on

8:26

the display yes and if you

8:29

circumnavigate the perimeter here you

8:33

should have a reading that is consistent

8:35

with the background uh in the area

8:38

correct that's the proper method a

8:41

measurement operator should do and not

8:43

just assume that they're getting

8:45

complete capture until they have just

8:48

done a quick sweep around the area

8:50

observed the background and if they're

8:53

not getting anything then they can just

8:54

leave it like that get their measurement

8:56

save the date and move on excellent

9:02

that's uh an awesome device so uh you

9:06

mentioned the weight you mentioned that

9:08

that is very handy the background

9:10

mechanism there what other features you

9:13

mentioned a long laundry list of items

9:15

what are the other features of the new

9:17

ad Globe high flow sampler that are

9:21

separate this product from the old

9:23

background product

9:25

so sensor technology was really

9:28

important

9:30

the previous back rack was using a

9:32

catalytic oxidation thermal conductivity

9:35

that was the that was the sensor

9:38

technology of its age back then and it

9:41

was practical it was Fairly reliable but

9:44

not nearly as reliable and accurate as

9:47

what we have today we're using

9:48

non-dispersive infrared

9:50

methane sensor this methane sensor is

9:54

tuned to the infrared Spectrum for

9:57

methane now you do have some cross

9:58

sensitivity with other gases there so we

10:02

have an oxygen sensor on there as well

10:04

to account for that so we have the

10:06

influence of heavy hydrocarbons on our

10:09

sample the oxygen displacement method is

10:12

used to account for that and ensure that

10:15

you have an accurate methane measurement

10:17

so that was very important tenser had to

10:21

be able to get down below what we had

10:23

previously reliably read the gas for the

10:28

full concentration up to 100 gas by

10:30

volume the previous technology had a

10:32

crossover issue at about five percent

10:35

gas by volume switching from thermal

10:38

switching from catalytic to Thermal and

10:41

that was a wishy-washy area it was uh it

10:45

was erratic at times if you had a leak

10:47

in that area getting the the thing to

10:50

make a decision on flipping over so

10:54

um that's that issue goes away with this

10:56

technology also and you're not getting

11:00

um you're not getting the the poisoning

11:02

effect the degradation of your sensor

11:05

either with non-dispersive infrared

11:07

there's there's an LED light in this

11:09

sensor and so it's tuned to methane so

11:12

it sees that wavelength in the infrared

11:15

spectrum and that's where you get your

11:18

reading so you have much longer life on

11:20

these sensors as well you're not going

11:22

to be changing them out like you were

11:23

previously and so accuracy level on on

11:28

this

11:29

um in a lab is as good as one percent

11:34

um but for for our purposes for the

11:36

field five percent is what we say call

11:39

it 95 but up to 99 and how about the

11:43

battery life you talked a little bit

11:45

about the battery life last time what

11:47

was the battery life of the old backer

11:49

at what's the battery life of this new

11:51

device and the battery indicator

11:54

so

11:55

that was a problem and it was a source

11:58

of pain for

12:00

everybody who was doing measurements the

12:03

the previous had used the nickel metal

12:07

hydride batteries and and so they were

12:11

big they were bulky

12:13

you could get four four and a half hours

12:16

out of a new battery and a lot of people

12:18

were not even getting that

12:21

um

12:21

as those batteries diminished over time

12:24

they went to you know three hour and

12:27

then a two hour life capacity

12:29

um and so that would be rather annoying

12:32

well the the the the more annoying thing

12:35

was not knowing where you were

12:37

um as far as the percent battery that

12:39

was left it would report a voltage uh a

12:44

voltage display starting out with 5

12:46

volts and it would quickly go down to

12:50

4.7 and then sit at 4.7 and then you

12:54

know just you didn't know when it was

12:55

going to stop after that once it will

12:57

drop below that level so we've got a

12:59

lithium ion polymer battery in here and

13:02

the other the other really good thing

13:04

about the scent The Cho the choice of

13:07

the sensor technology it's super low

13:09

power so that allows us to use this LiPo

13:13

battery

13:14

and give it

13:16

up to 10 hours of operating Time full on

13:19

and and so we we also have more than 65

13:24

hours of standby time that should be

13:25

more that should be sufficient for a

13:28

normal weeks of of work in in sampling

13:32

going from Station to Station but you

13:34

have a very distinct reading on the

13:37

instrument itself and on the display

13:41

indicating the battery percent and so

13:44

that's important it really goes from 100

13:46

to zero instead of

13:49

going down for a while and then

13:51

appearing to be a 75 and going to zero

13:55

at an unknown time yes yeah it it can

13:59

wear uh it can wear a person out who's

14:02

worked all day long and is it hasn't

14:07

hasn't got their equipment out of the

14:09

vehicle and into their hotel room and

14:12

deciding should I charge this or not so

14:13

if this thing comes back with 50 battery

14:18

um you probably are you're going to be

14:20

fine the next day

14:22

um but if it says 90 on the battery

14:25

you've got nine hours left on it so

14:29

um far improved the transparency of that

14:32

information but uh again the low power

14:36

sensor allows us to do that

14:39

uh we talked a little bit uh last time

14:42

about Andre you give us a little more

14:44

feel uh for the flavor of the

14:48

of the owner and one of the driving

14:50

forces behind this ad glow so Andre

14:54

Gorski

14:55

um I I met him back in 2005 and uh he

15:00

was the biggest uh buyer and seller of

15:05

the back rack high flow Samplers

15:07

globally and and so it was it was a very

15:11

good relationship because I I've learned

15:14

so much with all those huge measurement

15:17

campaigns there were over 35 projects

15:19

that ad Globe did in Eastern Europe

15:24

um Asia I think they did a few in in

15:28

Africa now they sold the product of over

15:30

450 backrock Samplers between Eastern

15:33

Europe Asia Europe and Africa the bulk

15:37

of them really were in that Eastern

15:39

European area and they were buying them

15:41

in packs of 30 40 sometimes 50.

15:45

um so they did a tremendous job

15:50

managing those projects and it required

15:52

a lot of training too so I was back and

15:54

forth over there training their people

15:57

on How to Train people and so

16:00

um I uh way before that I did the

16:03

feasibility studies with Andre he had to

16:06

do proof of concept so there was a

16:09

number of feasibility studies they'd get

16:11

me out there with the back rack and uh

16:16

um so I did I did a lot of that

16:18

measurement understanding what they were

16:20

up against and they just they merely

16:22

took those feasibility studies and

16:25

exploded them out across the regions

16:28

and then

16:29

um so Andre himself you know he's born

16:32

in Saint Petersburg

16:34

um he uh he he grew up in in Latvia he

16:39

spent 16 years in in in uh in Hungary

16:43

but he grew up in Latvia and he did go

16:47

to Moscow he went to the University of

16:48

Moscow but he's also

16:51

um he didn't have all this time in in

16:54

Russia he moved to Italy he moved to

16:56

France he's an incredible Chef he went

17:00

to the lay Cordon Bleu

17:02

um uh course in in France so his cooking

17:06

is amazing you want to be around this

17:08

guy in the kitchen and get the privilege

17:11

of eating

17:12

um fantastic Chef uh when all was said

17:16

and done with these projects

17:18

um they've they've moved on and so

17:22

um they were in the best position to

17:26

to answer the call you know this call to

17:29

action back in 2017 is the the flag went

17:34

up when Bachrach ended it they

17:36

discontinued it and so

17:39

um I was needling these guys to get into

17:41

this I was needling a few other people

17:44

to get into it as well

17:46

um but he he rose up and there's other

17:50

folks involved who did a lot of this

17:52

work who moved a lot of those Samplers

17:54

and they're involved in the project too

17:57

so

17:59

um they they took they took the

18:02

challenge up and uh you know where's

18:04

this thing made it's a hundred percent

18:08

um it's a hundred percent

18:10

assembled in Florida and so the the the

18:14

general part of this comes from Latvia

18:17

and then you got hose parts that come

18:20

from Europe of course you can't avoid

18:23

the China

18:24

um

18:25

you know the the small chips chips

18:28

smaller parts how much I don't know but

18:31

every manufacturer has that issue they

18:33

got to get something from China but uh

18:36

you have a great product that comes from

18:38

Latvia Latvia uh is you know great

18:41

partner an ally of the United States

18:43

there were NATO partners and uh and and

18:47

Andre spent a lot of time in Latvia

18:50

itself uh but uh so you have a mishmash

18:53

of of Parts they're primarily assembled

18:56

in Florida 100 absolutely

19:00

well it's a beautiful unit uh sounds

19:03

like it's been a labor of love for you

19:06

over the years not just the baccarat

19:08

unit but now the the new ad Globe high

19:11

flow sampler

19:13

yeah we're getting great feedback from

19:15

customers I I call these people on a

19:19

regular basis I because I want to know

19:21

and uh I my use with the product is

19:24

limited

19:25

um because I'm in the role of sales I do

19:28

the traveling I do the conferences

19:31

um and so I I get to show the product

19:34

and you'll demonstrate the product uh

19:37

with the customers uh that's part of it

19:39

that's where I get my experience but

19:42

getting back with the ones who are using

19:44

it again and again a hundred percent uh

19:48

customer satisfaction and so we've

19:51

listened to customers

19:53

um and and we had to make some changes

19:56

to our uh our software the performance

20:00

and you have a cell phone this isn't

20:02

based on an Android business Android

20:04

platform so it's going to come with an

20:06

armorax Android phone it's a shockproof

20:09

phone it's ip68 and 69 so it's it's

20:13

waterproof

20:15

yes so you'll Bluetooth to this

20:18

instrument you have a display on the

20:20

side here as well but you'll control the

20:23

instrument from your Android device you

20:25

don't have to use this Android device

20:27

you can use whatever Android device you

20:30

want this one does have magnets on the

20:33

back of it so it's it's very simple to

20:34

just magnetize this to the pipe itself

20:36

to you know dial in you know touch your

20:39

readings save and and so the Android

20:42

platform allows us to do these firmware

20:45

updates and do them fast I don't I've

20:48

heard that it's pretty restricted with

20:50

iOS

20:52

so uh dealing with one system makes it

20:55

simple

20:57

um

20:58

and so um

21:00

so you've got uh

21:02

you've got the ability gee whiz

21:09

you

21:10

you've got other accessories here that

21:13

I'm looking at this is one

21:15

so tell me about this

21:17

so this accessory was a collapsible cone

21:21

you might have seen pictures of me in uh

21:25

in some sort of a brochure or

21:27

presentation with a an orange traffic

21:30

cone on top of a compressor station blow

21:33

down doing a blow down measurement from

21:36

suction unit valve very practical tool

21:39

was that traffic tools so these guys

21:41

took the concept and these are handmade

21:44

uh very good design you can do up to an

21:48

eight inch open-ended line with this and

21:51

you've got the connector to the hose

21:53

itself so you just switch out the nozzle

21:56

to this in case you got to do a a an

21:59

open-ended line a vertical this is a

22:01

custom deal you fit you all figured out

22:03

this is what you really needed and

22:05

somebody built this thing and now you

22:07

can just uh it's collapsible

22:10

so if you don't have that much uh

22:13

Headroom here you can

22:15

use what's in there on that leak and

22:17

move this thing around to where you want

22:19

it to be yes and and so uh it it's it

22:23

has some versatility but it's really

22:25

intended for those vertical open-ended

22:27

lines

22:29

um you know anything from a one inch up

22:31

to an eight inch and you know that the

22:33

the they're all over the board as far as

22:36

what you'll find at a compressor station

22:37

but it makes leak capture uh very good

22:40

now if you happen to exceed the

22:43

threshold level of of this we just found

22:46

out that uh they had a packing

22:48

measurement uh I was just talking to a

22:51

customer this week and they said they

22:54

measured a packing measurement at 21

22:55

cubic feet per minute with the the gas

22:58

flow meter 2.0 it has the suction

23:01

capacity of uh of to of 12.36 that's the

23:07

that's the number coming from the blower

23:09

itself but if you have to force a a

23:13

measurement through there um because

23:16

Beyond there you're going to feel that

23:17

gas blowing so if you can capture that

23:19

leak you you can send it through the

23:21

instrument

23:23

still and you'll get a relative

23:25

measurement and that's that's the thing

23:28

that is interesting the back rack only

23:31

went up to ten and a half cubic feet and

23:33

and because of flow Dynamics and when it

23:36

stopped

23:37

um and and because of the unique flow

23:40

Dynamics uh of our device you can

23:44

measure up to at least we know in this

23:47

case 21 cubic feet per minute and so

23:49

they've bagged that also uh and so we're

23:53

we're understanding something we didn't

23:55

know before that yes you can force the

23:59

the uh the gas through the instrument at

24:01

a higher rate it'll only pull

24:03

12.36 on its own there's 21 through yeah

24:06

and and so we don't know what the upper

24:09

limit is yet I don't know and that's

24:11

something we got to do additional

24:13

testing on but it's very helpful you

24:16

could you could use the bag method with

24:19

the um caliber calibrated bags easily

24:22

with this if you had a leak that was

24:24

unmanageable uh to the point where you

24:27

couldn't measure it here right you

24:28

mentioned training how long would it

24:30

take a technician who's some familiarity

24:34

with field instruments

24:37

not brand new but has some some

24:39

familiarity how long would it take them

24:41

to get trained on this well I'm glad you

24:43

mentioned that because that was a big

24:45

issue with Bachrach uh there were there

24:48

were a lot of moving parts and

24:50

accessories mostly the accessories that

24:52

just leave in the box and never use

24:56

um and so training time on that device

24:58

was pretty much an eight hour day and uh

25:03

you slogged through it because you

25:05

really had to open the dang thing up you

25:07

had to open that instrument up to get

25:09

into the guts of it to really point out

25:11

here's where you're going to manage your

25:13

sensors your replace your sensors you're

25:16

going to have to change this filter

25:17

change that filter

25:19

so with this because you don't need to

25:23

do any of that anymore in the unique

25:25

design I can train somebody in how to

25:28

operate this within an hour and so it's

25:32

it's intuitive it's it's simple to

25:34

operate there's two parts turning this

25:36

instrument on then turn turning your

25:38

phone on bluetoothing them Bluetooth

25:40

them together and then you control the

25:43

unit and it's it's go time understanding

25:46

uh any other features and how to get the

25:48

data out okay give me uh give me an hour

25:52

and a half and you know we'll go out do

25:54

some measurements come back and then

25:56

we'll pull that data off so if if I

25:58

can't get it done in less than two hours

26:00

there's something wrong but that

26:02

compared to having to spend a full day

26:04

on just you know bottom up wearing

26:07

people out and so in this day and age

26:09

you want people to get simple simple is

26:12

important you want these guys to be able

26:14

to hit the ground running with it and

26:16

granted kind of like ogi you can you can

26:19

train a technician on how to do the

26:21

measurements or how to turn the camera

26:23

on or turn the instrument on and use it

26:25

but you can't really train them on the

26:29

techniques and the time required there's

26:33

kind of a fine art to it every every

26:36

user is different on the that end but on

26:38

this this end we do want to go out there

26:41

and and do as wide of a variety of

26:44

measurements as we can to train that

26:47

technician on what they're going to use

26:50

for you know barely every technician

26:52

who'd come up with the same set of

26:54

results quite quickly whereas with ogi

26:59

uh the field use is very important I

27:03

know we

27:05

we did a lot of offshore

27:07

platform testing with ogi cameras and we

27:12

did a little experiment one time and

27:14

sent out a uh

27:17

thermographer with several thousand

27:19

hours of experience and and a

27:22

thermographer that had just completed

27:25

the thermography training and the

27:28

thermographer that had several thousand

27:30

hours found three times as many leagues

27:33

as the person who had just been trained

27:36

with in thermography

27:38

um so I know on the

27:40

on the ogi camera

27:43

experience was a really big deal yeah I

27:46

think that became a bit of a headache on

27:49

the appendix k

27:51

uh

27:53

absolutely for those folks yeah and the

27:56

weather you know every day is different

27:58

the weather conditions from you know

28:00

winter to Spring winter to summer can

28:04

and wreak havoc on your ability to

28:07

cloudy days background temperature

28:10

differentials

28:12

a lot of different factors involved

28:15

for sure and you really don't have those

28:18

factors with this tool

28:20

um because it's direct measurement

28:22

you're going up to whatever it is you

28:24

got to measure like a vacuum cleaner

28:26

you're you just want to get those

28:28

emissions into the pipe and uh it

28:31

doesn't matter what operator is using it

28:34

as long as they're getting completely

28:36

captured they're going to get the same

28:37

results from technician to technician

28:41

that's beautiful

28:43

all right well thank you very much for

28:45

your time today Milton it's great to

28:47

catch up with you again great to get

28:49

some more feedback and the whole process

28:51

was uh very very informative

28:54

well thank you very much for having me I

28:56

really appreciate it yeah and thank you

28:58

for sharing uh your your time in the

29:00

business and and your experience

29:03

with our listeners and viewers my

29:06

pleasure

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