# Hazardous Materials Inventory Reduction
By Michael Sonnak on 21.10.2026
Article
**500 meters of piping. DN200. Full of diesel.**

That already amounts to approximately 15,700 liters of product inventory within the plant.
While safety considerations typically focus on leaks, corrosion protection, and monitoring systems, it’s worth asking another question:
How much product is actually in the system?

Pigging technology can largely empty pipelines and reduce the product inventory. This means:

- higher product recovery
- fewer product losses
- lower release quantities during maintenance work
- reduced potential extent of damage

In process engineering, this approach is often referred to as **Hazardous Inventory Reduction**: The less product there is in the system, the lower the amount that could potentially be released in the event of a malfunction.

Sometimes, the safest amount of product is simply the amount that is no longer in the pipeline.

How much product is stored in your longest process pipelines?