Instrumentation importance, characteristics and case studies

December 9, 2010

Instrumentation importance, characteristics and case studies

Presented To: Dr. Ing- Naveed Ramzan Presented By: Adnan Ali 2007-Chem-50

December 9, 2010

Instrumentation importance, characteristics and case studies

The advent and rapid growth of automation in process industry owes to the demand of precise measurement and control.

This leads to
o economic viability of process o mass production

December 9, 2010

Importance of Instrumentation
Measurement is an integral way of interaction among humanity and physical world. It provides us a dependable and reproducible path of quantifying the world in which we live.
Instrumentation is done for the sake of obtaining the required information pertaining to the completion of a process.
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Importance of Instrumentation
The basic variables need to be measured in a process plant are: Temperature Pressure Level Flow rate pH

December 9, 2010

Importance of Instrumentation
Temperature The temperature control comes from the quality control too. In some units like plate type distillation column In chemical reactors

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Importance of Instrumentation
Pressure: For the safety of process plant personnel and protection of the vessels, and equipments

Key operations like vapor-liquid equilibrium, chemical reaction rate, and fluid flow
Inferential variable to measure other quantities like level

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Importance of Instrumentation
Level: Inventory Management: Continuous supply of materials and for storage Control: For operations like blending, and mixing and control and stabilization of flow to the next process units. Alarming: High or low limits and safety shut downs etc. Data Logging: For data logging and billing purposes
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Importance of Instrumentation
pH: It is used to measure the acidity or alkalinity of liquids to measure concentration of solutions inferentially. As per rules of Environmental Protection Agency the drinking water, wastes or pollutants coming out of a plant should not exceed certain pH level.
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Importance of Instrumentation
The importance of instrumentation can be summarized as follows:
Production specifications Product quality Economics Operational constraints Environmental regulations Safety Suppressing external influences

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Performance Characteristics of Instrumentation

These characteristics are broken down into two main categories. 1. Static characteristics
2. Dynamic characteristics

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Static Characteristics
The static characteristic of an instrument includes: a) b) c) d) e) f) Accuracy Precision Repeatability Reproducibility Tolerance Range

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Static Characteristics
g) Span h) Linearity i) Sensitivity j) Threshold k) Resolution l) Drift m) Hysteresis n) Dead Space

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Dynamic Characteristics
The dynamic characteristics of an instrument describe its behavior between measured quantity changes and the time when the instrument output attains a steady value in response. Such characteristics are: a) Speed of response b) Fidelity c) Lag d) Dynamic response
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Case Studies

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Bitumen storage tank

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Case Studies
Challenge 1:
An asphalt production plant in southwest US have a bitumen storage tank. The costumer had been using a TDR type (Time dependent reflection) instrument but they were not satisfied with the performance. Those instruments were not accurate and several needed replacement when sensor got caught in the mixer and pulled out of the electronics. A combination of delivery temperatures higher than 180 C (356 F) and the thick viscous nature of bitumen is problematic.

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Municipal irrigation water distribution

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Case Studies
Challenge 2:
Different pumps are used to provide the necessary flow required for the distribution system. As the different pumps or combination of pumps are used, the customer wanted to monitor pump efficiency by monitoring the continuous flow in cubic feet per second (cfs). The customer was considering a magnetic flow meter, but the initial cost for a magnetic flow tube that was large enough was more than they wanted to spend.

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Case Studies
Challenge 3: An ammonium nitrate fertilizer manufacturer was lacking a pH sensor that offered accurate measurement in high-temperature inline acid and ammonia environments, resulting in under reacted chemicals with lower production yields. The extreme process conditions resulted in limited lifetime for the sensor; which rarely exceeded days or weeks in the reactor and only functioned for up to a month.

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PNA 6241/6441-873-10 Inline pH Sensor

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References
Books Consulted:
Patranabis, D., Principles of Industrial Instrumentation, Tata Mc Graw Hill, New Delhi, 2nd Ed., Ch.1. Survey, W., G. and Andrew, H., B., Applied Instrumentation in Process Industries, Williams Gulf Publishing Company, Vol. 1, Ed. 2. Fribance, A., E., Industrial Instrumentation Fundamentals, Mc Graw Hill Inc. Stephanopoulos, G., Chemical Process Control- An Introduction to Theory and Practice, P T R Prantice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Morris, S., A., Measurement and Instrumentation Principle, Butterworth Heinemann Publishers, Ch. 2, Pg. 16-21, 2001. Singh, S., K., Industrial Instrumentation and Control, Tata Mc Graw Hill Education Private Limited, New Delhi, Ed. 3, 2009.

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References
Web Links:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38865900/1st-Lec, retrieved on 13.10.2010 http://pec.org.pk/sCourse_files/APCS/AppliedProcessControlSy stems.pdf, retrieved on 13.10.2010 http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/index.cfm, retrieved on 10.10.2010 http://fluidinpipe.com/sensors.html, retrieved on 16.10.2010 http://www.sea.siemens.com/us/internetdms/ia/ProcessInstruments/Level/docs_RadarLevel/LR250_Asp halt_Case_Study_SII.pdf, retrieved on 31.10.2010 http://www.sea.siemens.com/us/internetdms/ia/ProcessInstruments/Level/docs_UltrasonicLevel/Irrigat ionSonokit_CaseStudy.pdf, retrieved on 31.10.2010 http://www.astisensor.com/Case_Study_1.pdf, retrieved on 08.10.2010
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