Capacitance system reveals oil:water ratio in crude
15 Jan 2000
Efficient operation of oil-water separators, widely used by the petroleum industry, depends on the mixture's composition and dispersion characteristics. Non-intrusive control of these is critical.
A novel electrical system, developed by Tom Dyakowski as a part of a joint industry/EPSRC project on the design and instrumentation of process separation system, offers on-line measurement of the dielectric properties of an oil-water mixture, to reveal the phase boundaries.
The capacitance-based instrumentation, comprising two arrays of electrodes in the separator internals that monitor separation processes, is under development.
The measurements of electric capacitance are performed with a dedicated electronic circuit, also developed at UMIST, capable of measuring capacitances with an accuracy of 10-16F at 1.2MHz.
The project is funded by `several' major oil companies and its objectives are two-fold: to develop an instrument to measure dynamic behaviour of oil-water mixtures; and to develop a portable probe to detect the oil-water interface and phase distribution in a vessel.
The system is expected to be tested this September at BP, UK, and at Norsk Hydro, Norway.
Oil/water separator, monitored by UMIST's mobile capacitance meter
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