Vancouver, Canada, 24^th October 2023: Quectel Wireless Solutions, a global IoT solutions provider, has released a new white paper which details how operators of remote tanks are harnessing IoT to increase efficiencies, eliminate downtime and reduce their environmental impacts. The paper, titled ‘How wireless connectivity is driving new efficiencies in remote tank monitoring’ provides insight into how organizations are moving away from manual checking of tank levels to utilizing connected sensors that use cellular, GPS or low power wireless networks to update tank status.

From fuels to water, remote tanks provide mission critical supplies to industries, communities and businesses across the globe. Often in remote locations, mainstream connectivity is unavailable so satellite connectivity can be used to save on truck rolls and to enable tanks to be refilled only when it becomes necessary. Conversely, as tanks near emptiness, refilling can be organized so there is no downtime and no health and safety risks caused by tanks running dry.

The simplicity of adding a sensor to monitor tank level and combining it with connectivity to communicate data in real-time, if desired, has seen significant uptake gathering momentum. Research firm, Berg Insight, estimates that the global installed base of active remote tanking monitoring systems exceeded 6.2 million units at the end of 2021 and is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 29.9% with the firm expecting the active installed base to hit 23 million units in 2026. The North American market leads current adoption with more than 2.6 million active remote tank monitoring units deployed. It is followed by Europe with 1.5 million and the APAC region which has 1.4 million units deployed.

This sets the scene for continued growth, but organizations face several choices regarding which technology to adapt for their remote tank monitoring. The critical enabler of the “remote” part of remote tank monitoring is the network connexion that enables the sensor data to be communicated to the back office. This typically involves installation of a gateway device that contains a wireless module at the tank. Tanks typically utilize cellular networks for wireless communications because they are cost effective, have wide coverage and offer low set up costs. Connecting to a 4G network, for example, requires no wiring and can be a very cost-effective method of delivering the low bandwidth connectivity that tank monitors require. With the ongoing retirements of 2G and 3G networks across the globe, 4G in the form of LTE Cat 1 is expected to be the most popular network selection for tank monitoring.

Alternatives include other low power wide area (LPWA) networks, such as narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) or LoRaWAN or Sigfox. These are dependent on network coverage increasing but they will easily be able to cope with the demands of common remote tank monitoring applications. Organizations in markets that face coverage issues will need to consider satellite connectivity in the form of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) using connectivity from systems such as GPS, Galileo or GLONASS. These can be utilized to ensure the accurate positioning of tanks so users can find them and also to communicate tank status.

To read the white paper in full, visit https://quectel.com/library/remote-tank-monitoring-white-paper

About Quectel    

Quectel’s passion for a smarter world drives us to accelerate IoT innovation. A highly customer-centric organization, we are a global IoT solutions provider backed by outstanding support and services. Our growing global team of 5,900 professionals sets the pace for innovation in cellular, GNSS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules as well as antennas and services.

With regional offices and support across the globe, our international leadership is devoted to advancing IoT and helping build a smarter world.

For more information, please visit: quectel.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, and X.    

Media contact:  media@quectel.com