Apr-2015

Explosion protected portable flow metering - (TIA)

Ruhr Oel refineries in Germany are among the first to employ the world’s first ATEX-certified portable flowmeter, the F Fluxus F/G608 from Flexim.

Oliver Foth
Flexim

Article Summary

At the Ruhr Oel GmbH refinery in Gelsenkirchen-Scholven, Paul Freynik is among the first to employ the new explosion protected flowmeter in their work.

BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH manages Ruhr Oel GmbH’s two refineries in Scholven and Gelsenkirchen-Horst. Freynik works in the maintenance department of BP Gelsenkirchen and looks after the plants in the southern area of the Scholven factory, amongst them an atmospheric distillation unit, a visbreaker, an aromatics plant and the raffinate storage tank. The measuring tasks that arise are equally diverse: sometimes the efficiency of a pump must be monitored or existing measuring equipment must be tested. With the Fluxus FG08, Freynik has immediate access to the measuring point, which previously would have required applying for a transfer certificate.

Since the revised version of explosion protection directives, there was no longer any portable ultrasonic flow measurement system that met current ATEX standards. Flexim says that with its ‘Ex-portables’ it is continuing to develop extreme ranges. There were already quite a few measuring points where, the company says, its instruments were the only ones able to measure the flow rate non-invasively, be it due to the particularly large or small nominal widths or due to extreme temperatures.

Stefan Hoffterheide is a colleague of Paul Freynik. He also works at the Ruhr Oel GmbH refinery in Gelsenkirchen-Scholven in the preventative maintenance department which is responsible for ensuring maximum availability of the plants by carrying 
out regular inspections of large-scale equipment such as pumps and air blowers. There is also a Fluxus ADM 6725 in the department’s equipment storage. The department decided to purchase another of Flexim’s portable Fluxus F601 Energy, not least because of the reliability of the old acoustic flowmeter.

With the Fluxus F601 Energy, flow rates and the effective power of liquid based thermal consumers can be measured non-invasively. For this purpose, the temperature of the fluid which transports heat must be recorded in the supply and in the return line. This is also done non-invasively using Pt100 sensors which are clamped onto the pipe. These sensors calculate the current thermal and cooling capacity from the temperature difference, from the volume flow rate measured in the return line and on the basis of physical media parameters stored in the internal database of the measuring transmitter. Due to the totaliser function integrated into the measuring transmitter, the Fluxus F601 Energy can also 
be used as an energy meter. This is how 
Stefan Hoffterheide tests the efficiency of heat exchangers in order to ensure they are well maintained. Another feature is the fact that the flowmeter can also be used to determine the cooling capacity of the buffer liquid circulation on the mechanical seals of pumps.

With the meter, two pairs of transducers are 
sufficient to measure the flow rate non-invasively 
in the most common nominal size range from 
DN10 to DN2500. There are other transducers 
available for a nominal size range from DN6 bis DN6500. The measuring transmitter automatically detects the transducers when they are connected and loads their calibration data. As a result, setup takes a matter of minutes and incorrect parameter settings are avoided.

This short case study originally appeared in PTQ's Technology In Action feature - Q2 2015 issue.
For more infomation, please contact: flexim@flexim.com