BASF Tracks Chemical-Carrying Railcars in Real Time

According to Williams, each tracking unit BASF installs comes with a sensor suite that includes location, impact and motion sensors. The units are set to transmit their location, along with any new impact or motion data, via satellite four times daily. The sensors enable the firm to know where the cars are, whether they have received any impacts (which could result in damage to the car, or a potential hazard related to chemicals stored within that car), when the cars are in motion and when they are still. Each location at which the cars are loaded or emptied—such as BASF's manufacturing plants and customer locations—is input into the server as a geo-fencing (electronic boundary) location, so that specific information can be sent indicating when the cars arrive at a particular site, and when they depart.

For the more hazardous chemical cars, additional sensors connected to the units provide dome sensors to indicate when the dome might have been opened outside of a geo-fence area. They also come with temperature sensors to track temperature changes within the car. In this way, the company knows when the chemicals' temperature becomes too high or too low. This data can also be used for business analytics, Williams says, because it provides an indication of the chemical's specific temperature when it was loaded and unloaded.

Steven Williams, BASF's logistics technology manager

Customers require that some of the chemicals be at a specific temperature while being unloaded. Due to this requirement, BASF heats or cools a chemical before it is loaded onto a railcar, in order to achieve that temperature by the time it is delivered. For example, the company may heat a chemical to 110 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure it will be at 75 degrees upon delivery. However, with temperature data, the company can now better determine the rate at which the chemical cools, and thereby adjust the heating process accordingly. That, Williams says, is one potential savings related to this installation.

The company also expects to save money previously spent on the demurrage of cars left too long in a rail yard. By tracking collisions based on impact sensor data, Williams explains, BASF knows when a car may have been damaged, and in whose possession that car was at the time that the accident occurred.

But the system's safety aspect is also critical to BASF, Williams adds. Beginning next week, the company plans to provide alert data to the TSA in certain incidents, such as a collision or railcar tampering. The system will also send BASF an immediate alert itself when an accident occurs, and include such data as the particular chemical loaded in the car, whether that car is upright or tipped over, and where it is located.

One challenge in the hardware's development, Hoehn says, involved providing the necessary power, depending on the variety of uses of the sensor units. If units are programmed to beacon more often than four times per day, for instance, they will consume battery power much more quickly. Railcars do not generate their own power, so GE and BASF developed the system to include solar panels connected to the unit's rechargeable battery. Installing the system has been another challenge, Williams says. Because the railcars generally move across the United States, the company must wait until a car arrives at a location at which trained BASF employees can install the unit and input data about that car, including its serial number and the type of commodity it carries.

Williams is confident that his company will receive multiple financial gains from using the system, based on reduced demurrage costs, improved car deployment and greater visibility into responsibility in the event of a collision. The business analytics will add another benefit, he says, though some of that benefit will be better realized when all cars for the six targeted commodities are fully equipped. Before deciding whether to install the system across the entire fleet of 7,000 railcars, Williams says, the company intends to continue analyzing the financial gains for itself and its customers against the system's cost.