Today many companies in the Nigeria oil and gas industry are using the manual methods of monitoring their storage tanks. They send resources to the tank, put a stick in the tank, read the measurement and mark it down on a clipboard.
While this may seem a safe way to continue to do business, technology has come to the place where there are now more efficient ways to handle this mundane task and it will allow you to better utilize your resources to handle other important task.
Tanks can come in all shapes and sizes, can be fixed (Storage tank) or mobile (Tanker Vehicle), and may contain liquid substances ranging from oil, gas, water to explosive chemicals, and solids as different as grain and chemical reagents. While the substance involved is the most critical element in determining the requirements for tank monitoring, the other characteristics of the tank must be considered to ensure, safety, regulatory compliance, and business effectiveness.
Turraco Industrial deemed fit to help you understand many of the concepts that are important to helping you obtain a solution that will not only provide you with the ability to remotely monitor your tanks but can potentially save you thousands of dollars from lost revenues and fines.
Overview
Tank monitoring is a storage tank management solution that has come to help many Nigeria businesses to run more effectively. However, tank monitoring all starts with a measurement sensor. The sensor, often designed for a specific substance or environment, is used to provide the metrics and readings that, along with the transmission backbone and the data management and alerting capabilities, is what creates a full solution.
Since tanks come in so many different shapes and sizes the sensor that is used for monitoring is, first and foremost, the most critical part of the solution. At the site, the second critical part of the solution is the data communication and management, which is typically done by some type of communication device or intelligent controller. The tank related information is gathered from the sensor and then transmitted to a person or a backend system that is capable of deciphering the information to make critical decisions. This is the actual monitoring piece of the solution.
Some systems like the Tankloq Automatic Pump Controller can offer the ability to also control the equipment used to fill the tank such as pumps or valves. When this is involved as part of the solution it is called a monitor and control solution. Intelligent controllers can provide both monitoring and control capability at the remote site. The ability to control the equipment remotely either in a manual or automated fashion can provide businesses the ability to better utilize support resources and maintain the site without the fear of excessive down time from equipment outages or costly spills.
Factors such as billing and payment can play a huge role in how accurate the sensors must be. When amounts paid/owed factor into the tank measurements the accuracy becomes priority one. Additionally when you have a series of tanks that are interconnected, the level of each of the tanks can affect the timing and triggering of alerts or other commands to manage the tanks or other equipment on site.
Understanding Tank Monitoring
Instead of just managing the level of one tank you may need to handle various valves or relays to switch tanks. Finally, and most importantly, is the ability to have a solution that alerts you when there is a problem. By having a tank monitoring solution like Tankloq, that alerts you when the tank is say, approaching full or almost empty, you can manage the remote site from any PC or Smartphone without the need to have support personnel repeatedly visiting the site either daily or weekly. Alerts can be set for any metric, or event for a series of events or interdependencies.
Tanks have different storage applications, and come in all shapes and sizes, and that in its self can cause issues when trying to monitor the substances in the tank.
When you take into account the complexity of the type of material in the tank, the size, capacity, orientation and location of the tank, one begins to understand the need for well thought out solutions.
When considering remote tank monitoring, here are some of the variables that should be taken into consideration when planning:
· What is the shape and orientation of the tank? Angle?
· How tall is the tank and how much can it hold?
· What substance is being measured?
· Where is the tank located? Is it mobile and do you need to track it?
· What temperatures will the location experience and what temperatures will the substance be exposed to?
· Does the substance expand or change properties with temperature?
· If the tank has an access point what is the NPT fitting size of the access point and is there anything around the access point that might interfere with a sensor?
· Is there power available at the site or will it require batteries and/or solar equipment?
· Does the location already has Internet access, or are cellular or satellite better choices?
· How accurate of measurement do I need and how critical is it that it be correct, i.e. what is the acceptable margin of error for the readings?
The Technology
The correct technology to use will be determined based on the responses to the questions above. The first step to take in installing tank telemetry system for your application is to start by selecting the right tank monitoring system integrating company. The company will help you to select the correct sensor to monitor your tank(s). Apart from choosing the most effective solution for you, Turraco Industrial will further help you to define how to deliver the information to the field and/or centralized controller, and then decide what alerts or control commands will be generated from the information.
Conclusion
When determining the right solution for remote tank monitoring, knowing your tank, the location, and the substance you are monitoring is critical. It is often best to go with a flexible solution like Tankloq that allows you to handle any condition on the site and allows for integration with other systems on site.
However if you choose to integrate with point solutions be sure that it will handle your exact requirements. Using remote monitoring solutions can free up your support resources, reduce service costs, production downtime, and unnecessary truck rolls, allowing you to plan better, and operate in less of a reactive state. As a result, the payback is very quick on your investment. Without remote monitoring, business impacting events such as equipment shutdown, lost production, and costly spills and compliance violations can occur unnoticed. When 24/7 production is your goal, and safety and compliance are critical, remote monitoring is a must.
When trying to make sense of tank monitoring or any remote monitoring and control applications you can count on the experts at Turraco Industrial to provide the right support in making the correct decision and also in providing a full solution that meets your needs and your budget.
Please use the contact information below if you need help with your decision making process or need a quotation for solutions. |
