Tanker Truck Offloading
at
Petrobakken Crude Oil Battery
Sand, Wax and Solids
Removed in Crude
Oil Treater
Clamp-on Ultrasonic Transducer
Monitoring Crude Oil Flow
in 3" Steel Pipe
Pump Jacks in Alberta |
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Crude oil is delivered by tanker
truck to the Petrobakken battery site in Drayton Valley,
Alberta and offloaded to emulsion tanks and then pumped to
treaters for processing where gravity, heat and chemical
additives break down the oil-water emulsions.
To
maintain production without shut downs Petrobakken contacted
Seidlitz Engineering of Cochrane, Alberta to help find a
solution to their wax off problem. Seidlitz specified
clamp-on ultrasonic meters because they work from outside
the pipe without obstructing flow. They contacted
Carbon
Controls Ltd. in Calgary for DFM 5.0 Doppler Flow Meters
manufactured by Greyline Instruments. Three meters were
originally installed. Petrobakken’s lead operator, Terry
Willoughby found that the
Greyline DFM 5.0 meters measured
flow reliably and were unaffected by wax and sand in the
oil. Because they work from the outside of the pipe the
Doppler ultrasonic flowmeters did not cause plugging off or
pressure drop. With more than six months continuous
operation with the new Greyline flowmeters there has been no
shut downs for cleaning. Terry commented “When something
works, it works”.
Seidlitz Engineering redesigned
the pipe configuration for 1.5m straight runs for good
optimum flow conditions. Each flowmeter's 4-20mA output is
connected to Petrobakken's PLC for pump speed control. Flow
rate and totalizer are displayed on the instrument's backlit
LCD display. After three months of successful testing,
Petrobakken installed three more Greyline DFM 5.0
flowmeters. All units are mounted on 3” steel pipes. The
ultrasonic sensors do not require maintenance or cleaning
and do not obstruct flow. Doppler works by injecting high
frequency ultrasound through the pipe wall and into the
flowing oil. It requires solids or gas bubbles in the fluid
to reflect its signal so dirty crude oil is an ideal
application for this technology.
The Greyline DFM 5.0
Doppler Flow Meter uses a single-head ultrasonic sensor
mounted on the outside of a metal or plastic pipe. The
clamp-on sensor works on ½” diameter or larger pipes and is
rated for Div 2 locations, or it can be Div 1 with optional
intrinsic safety barriers. It displays, totalizes and
controls with settings entered through a simple keypad menu
system.
Time is money in the oil business.
Petrobakken's battery site is automated and runs 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week. They produce 350 m3 of oil per day and
are equipped to handle up to 1000 m3 per day. By switching to
non-contacting Greyline DFM 5.0 Doppler Flow Meters
Petrobakken can now keep production going without shut downs
for flowmeter maintenance.
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