Virtually every pipeline across America and throughout the world is wearing out, corroding, aging, and some day will leak. They’ll be leaking expensive fuels such as crude oil, natural gas and/or highly caustic chemicals, and causing serious safety threats to the public and to the environment. The leaks will be costing millions of dollars. If – or when-- such a leak happens, say, under the Galleria, the cost of excavation and repairs will cost millions of dollars, if the legal permits can be obtained.

And, if or when there’s a leak among the web of pipelines under Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo, it will make the recent pipeline infrastructure problems in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, seem like a small drip.

But now, from a small new company in Katy, Texas, comes the promise of a quick and relatively cheap cure to such emergencies and potential disasters. The firm is named Smart Pipe Company, Inc., which last month moved into the Westgreen Business Center in Katy. The facility includes 12,500 square feet of office and systems assembly and testing space, and will be home to the company’s executive management team, sales and administrative staff.

What Red Adair did when he squelched raging infernos, Smart Pipe claims it can do quietly, efficiently and in short order, to major pipeline breaks.

“Smart Pipe already has proved it can do the job,” said Aron Ekelund, the company’s operations head. “And, everyone in the industry knows about us now.”

The first commercial installation of Smart Pipe’s patented liner system rehabilitated a 12 inch diameter leaking hot water (165 degrees Fahrenheit) transport line to a major U.S. chemical plant. Smart Pipe inserted its thin walled, non-corrosive composite pipe some 800 feet into a corroded line. The company installed this new, tight-fitting liner and restored it successfully to its full operating pressure of 250 psi.

Smart Pipe believes that in most urban areas, the company can reduce replacement costs by up to 50 per cent. The alternative to this system is usually a “dig-and-replace” method or constant repairs to aging pipelines where time is big money.

Installations by Smart Pipe in several natural gas and crude oil transmission pipelines are currently under consideration, said Steve Catha, founder and CEO of the company in 2004.

Catha, who has 25 years experience in the industry, conceived this unique liner system and the manufacturing and installation system over the past 10 years. Prior to forming Smart Pipe, Catha founded Flexpipe a.k.a. Wellstream, Inc., the first manufacturer of high-pressure flexible pipe. Then, Catha founded Pipeliner, the developer of U Liner, a system of trenchless rehabilitation of low pressure underground lines. Before all of that, Catha spent 15 years with Armco Steel.

Catha and his small corps of technology experts gave an impressive demonstration last month to members of the Katy Area Economic Development Council as to how the company can make pipe, line it, bind it and pull it through existing ailing pipelines. There are five big machines which can be moved to the disaster site and do the repair job without the need for expensive and extensive excavations.

“Many of these problem areas are very difficult to get to,” Ekelund said, “but we can operate from miles away and insert new pipe.”

Ekelund said that the company can replace pipe up to a 16-inch diameter, for a length of 10 miles, and insert it at a mile a day. The company is confident that it will be able to make even bigger pipe inserts, and go further distances in the future, Ekelund said.

The factory is taken to the job, and the machines spread out on a 40 by 500 foot pad, and may be housed by tents in order to protect and control temperature conditions. The composite pipe is tough but can bend, doesn’t corrode, and is folded into a C-shaped for pulling into and through an existing line for long distances. This eliminates costly repair, or replacement in urban and environmentally sensitive areas.

To further assure a long, safe operating life, fiber optic sensors can be installed to detect leaks, mechanical impacts and large soil movements. These sensors allow the health of all pipelines to be monitored on a 24/7 basis.

This new pipe is capable of expanding operating pressures beyond most limits of 1,440 psi, Ekelund said, because of custom designs.

It’s hard to imagine all the difficult scenarios in which Smart Pipe associates are likely to find themselves in the future: big city buildings, under complex highway crossings, major wetlands, transportation terminals.

Catha is proud of the dozen or so executives who make up the Smart Pipe team. Most of these officials have been recognized in their various fields of expertise for many years.

The company received the elite designation of “Most Promising Technology” at the Rice Alliance 2006 Energy Technology Forum, and was recognized as runners-up in the 2007 Global Pipeline Awards in Rio de Janeiro. Smart Pipe recently became a portfolio company of Shell Technology Ventures Fund, of which Royal Dutch Shell is a majority investor.

Luring Smart Pipe to the Katy area was celebrated by Lance LaCour, Katy Area EDC president and CEO. “We thank Steve Catha and the Smart Pipe management team for selecting the Katy area…. They bring a wealth of talent and new employment to the greater Katy area,” LaCour said. “We will do all that we can to support their continuing growth and development. We thank KAEDC Vice President Frank Lombard for his work on this project.”