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The vast expanses of remote onshore areas in oil-producing countries are home to a network of flow and collection pipelines that are susceptible to leaks. Most of these areas lack the infrastructure to enable the use of remote monitoring systems equipped with sensors and real-time data analysis to provide early detection of anomalies. This paper proposes a proof of concept for a monitoring system based on the Internet of Things (IoT) for real-time detection of pipeline leaks in onshore oil production fields. The proposed system, based on a thermal imaging leak detection method, informs the operator of the system's operating status via a web page. The leak detection system communicates via a Zigbee network between the IoT devices and a 4G mobile network. The results of the tests carried out show that a visual and automatic IoT-based leak detection system is possible and plausible. The proposed leak detection system enables supervisors at remote stations and field workers to monitor the operating status of pipelines via computers, tablets, or smartphones, regardless of where they are.

Essential oil (EO) distillation units, which are commonly installed on farms, have difficultly accessing knowledge centers. The apparent simplicity of the process hides unwanted losses and deviations that go undetected and, therefore, not corrected. This article proposes improvements to the process that are based on "4.0" technologies in order to detect and correct two important deficiencies, with an impact on the yield, quality and environmental performance. The first deficiency comprises the steam channels that are formed through green mass (channeling), are well known and are considered normal by EO producers. Without detection and correction, this negatively affects the extraction results. The second is the lack of technology that is able to automatically determine the extraction endpoint. Smart sensing, control, self-configuration and the dynamic determination of improved process parameters make up a set of actions undertaken by a smart extraction plant (50-liter capacity). Nineteen experiments using lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) exhibited remarkable 24% and 10% improvements in the yield and quality, respectively. Energy consumption and a more than 50% reduction in the processing complete the set of results achieved. In addition to manufacturing costs and the utilization of capacity, better sustainability indicators are positive consequences of this technological updating., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Machado et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)