Turkish refinery opts for Emerson wireless technology
Izmir, Turkey – Turkey’s state-owned Tüpraş refinery in Izmir, has placed an order with Emerson Process Management for a tank gauging system that includes 85 wireless radar level gauges. The deal follows testing of 21 additional devices in the same application, which requires accurate, reliable level measurements ona number of critical oil-movement tanks.
The Turkish facility has an annual refining capacity of 11 million tonnes and storage capacity of 1.9 million cubic metres in 164 tanks - including 44 lube-oil storage tanks that were already being monitored using wired TankRadar Rex level gauges from Emerson.
On other tanks however, the existing non-Emerson gauging system sometimes had communication problems and gave incorrect readings because of damage to cables during excavations in the field, said Emerson. Support personnel were not always available when needed, the vendor added.
Tüpraş first considered replacing the older system with additional wired TankRadar Rex level gauges, which had proven to be reliable, accurate and almost maintenance-free since they were installed at the refinery in 2007. Because the tanks are spread over a large area and existing cabling and junction boxes were not up to standard, the high
cabling and installation costs of this approach made wireless technology more appealing.
Ground conditions make excavation for new cable runs difficult, said Ali Erener, project chief engineer at Tüpraş Izmir, noting the wireless solution minimised costs for cabling, cable trenches, conduits, and cable trays.
“Going wireless also gives us the flexibility to add more devices in the future - not only for level and temperature measurements, but also for tank water control and nitrogen pressure control at our blanketing tanks, which are far from the control room, as well as other applications,” commented Erener.
“Because operations personnel will use the gauging system in their daily work, we required it to be user-friendly,” added operations superintendent Mustafa Atalay, who has worked at Tüpraş Izmir for more than 34 years. “It’s also important to have a good relationship with the supplier to get the most out of the system.”
The IEC 62591 (WirelessHART) field network at the Izmir refinery will have a node for each tank, including a TankRadar Rex radar level gauge installed with an antenna unit, a Smart Wireless THUM adapter, and a multiple spot temperature sensor to enable accurate volume calculations.
Temperature and level data will be sent wirelessly to a Smart Wireless gateway, which serves as the network manager and provides an interface to the refinery’s TankMaster inventory software or control system. The TankMaster software has also been upgraded to include batch calculation for product transfers.
