Scattered gamma radiation utilized for level measurements in gravitational separators

Abstract

In the petroleum industry, there is a great demand for accurate level measurements and improved process control in gas/oil/water separators. This is necessary to optimize vessel performance, to avoid accidental oil discharge in produced water, and to save cost and environmental hazards from excessive use of chemical additives. It is also important to know how much sand has built up inside the separator. Improved process control has become more important lately due to the increasing demand for more compact systems. This paper presents the work done on the development of a level monitoring system utilizing scattered gamma radiation. Measurements and simulations have been used to find which measurement geometries give the required sensitivity and accuracy. It has been proven that both the sensitivity and the count rate depend strongly on the geometry of the setup and that multiple-scattered radiation dominates the detected response.

On-line measurement of separation dynamics in primary gas/oil/water separators: Challenges and technical solutions—A review

“…García-Golding et al (1995) developed an admittance sensor to measure the water content of oil-in-water emulsions, which could be potentially applicable to a segmented probe. Holstad et al (2005) developed a level monitoring system based on gamma-ray attenuation techniques (commercially available as the Tracerco Profiler) which detects the phase content distribution by using multiple gamma-ray source-detector pairs (Darwood et al 2003). The Tracerco Profiler utilises attenuation of gamma radiation (60 keV) to find the density profile in the separator.…”

“…Tracerco Profiler installed in a gravitational separator with typical phase distributions(Holstad et al, 2005).…”

Estimation of the Filling Distribution and Height Levels Inside an Insulated Pressure Vessel by Guided Elastic Wave Attenuation Tomography

“…In the context of separator vessels, displacers [ 4 , 7 ], pressure sensors [ 8 , 9 ], ultrasonic pulse-echo devices [ 4 , 7 ], electromagnetic radar [ 8 ], electric capacity methods [ 5 , 6 , 10 , 11 , 12 ] and various approaches of gamma ray methods [ 7 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ] have proved their applicability for height evaluation.…”

Estimation of gas/liquid and oil/water interface levels in an oil/water/gas separator based on pressure measurements and regression modelling

“…The controllability of gravity 4 separators significantly affects the efficiency of the separation process. Improving the process control of gravity separators will subsequently improve the accuracy of gas/liquid and oil/water interface level measurements [2]. The gas/liquid and oil/water interface levels were measured from the bottom of the separator.…”