Paz Energy Uses RFID for Fuel Security and Inventory Efficiencies

"The 12 RFID seals tell managers what's happening with the truck," says Larry Blue, president and CEO of Hi-G-Tek. "The control center knows if the driver has opened the right valve at the right station, and if he's delivering the right grade of fuel."

The system also helps Paz keep more accurate inventory counts, because it provides a better understanding of how fuel is used by its customers. With more accurate inventory levels, Paz is less likely to run out of fuel during delivery runs.

Larry Blue

The RFID-enabled seals were custom-designed by Hi-G-Tek's development team, based in Israel. The seals have a battery life of about five years and read ranges of up to 300 feet. They operate on a proprietary air-interface protocol developed by Hi-G-Tek, designed to help preserve battery life. For the majority of time, the seals remain in listening mode, which uses minimal battery power, but are awakened when the interrogator sends a signal to retrieve the data from the seals. "The way you design the air interface has a significant impact on battery life," says Blue. The protocol is based on two full-duplex radio channels; one operates at 125 kHz, he says, the other at one of the lower ISM band between 300 and 916 MHz.

According to Blue, the seals are the only wireless seals available that are certified as intrinsically safe—that is, that the electronics in the seals are guaranteed not to emit any sparks or static electricity that could set off a fire. The certification comes from the Underwriters Laboratories, an independent, not-for-profit product safety certification organization that tests products and writes safety standards. The seals also comply with the European Union's ATEX regulations, Blue says.

Neither Hi-G-Tek nor Paz will reveal how much was invested in the system, though Blue says the companies have signed service agreements. Hi-G-Tek paid for the hardware, while Paz paid for the installation, and Hi-G-Tek receives a monthly service fee for operating and maintaining the system. Hi-G-Tek also customized Paz's SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to work with the new data collected by the RFID system.

During the implementation of the project, Hi-G-Tek had to grapple with what Blue calls standard software bugs, as well as hardware design. For example, the design of the RFID tags had to be modified because of how the valves and hatches are used, and due to the extreme summer heat in Israel. The tags also had to withstand some heavy-duty, but typical, abuse. "If a driver kicks a hatch shut," Blue notes, "that's a pretty big shock." Hi-G-Tek provided training for drivers, the installation team and workers in the control center.

Hi-G-Tek has sold similar applications in Mexico and three other Latin American countries, as well as in one Eastern European country.