O. Isaksen et al., A CAPACITANCE-BASED TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM FOR INTERFACE MEASUREMENT IN SEPARATION VESSELS, Measurement science & technology, 5(10), 1994, pp. 1262-1271
Optimal quality of the product that leaves a water/oil/gas separator i
s determined by optimal separator design and control. Current control
strategies for separators are extremely simple due to the lack of a re
liable interface level measurement system. In this project a capacitan
ce-based tomography system for interface imaging inside a separator ha
s been developed and tested in the separator laboratory at Christian M
ichelsen Research (CMR). The tomography system consists of a capacitan
ce sensor system, a data acquisition system and a model-based reconstr
uction algorithm implemented on a personal computer. The system can po
tentially measure the water, oil/water emulsion, oil and foam heights
inside a separator on a process plant. In this project the tomograph h
as been tested, in a separator laboratory at CMR, for on-line imaging
of water, oil and air interface levels (during water/oil/air tests) an
d for oil, foam and air interface imaging (during oil/air tests). The
obtained accuracy is within 1.0 cm for all phases. The tomograph also
detected the presence of foam, but due to problems with electrostatic
charge generation, poor stability in the measurements results. In a st
eel separator, however, it is expected that the electrostatic charge p
roblem will probably not exist.