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International Society for Industrial Process Tomography

3rd World Congress on Industrial Process Tomography

Scattered Gamma Radiation Utilized for Level Measurements in Gravitational Separators

M B Holstad1, G A Johansen1, P Jackson2, K S Eidsnes1

1 Department of Physics, University of Bergen, Allegaten 55, 5007 Bergen, Norway Marie.Holstad@fi.uib.no

2Tracerco, PO Box 1, Billingham, Cleveland, TS23 1LB, UK, peter.jackson@matthey.com


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 optimise 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 lately become more important due to the increasing demand for more compact systems.


This paper presents the work done on development of a level monitoring system utilizing scattered gamma radiation. Measurements and simulations have been used to find a geometry that gives the required sensitivity and accuracy. It has been proven that the sensitivity depends strongly on the geometry in the set-up and that multiple-scattered radiation dominates the detected count rates.


Keywords Level measurements, separator, gamma radiation, multiple scatter

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