World's Largest Calibration Facility In Rotterdam
André Boer, Managing Director of KROHNE Altometer in Dordrecht, is excited about the new HyCal calibration facility and the improvements that KROHNE Altometer initiated in this area: The company is working on an innovative calibration system for flowmeters for oil products. The facility will be built in Rotterdam, home to customers such as Nerefco and Shell. It is expected to be operational by the beginning of 2007 and certified by the beginning of 2008. KROHNE's flowmeters measure liquid flow, including oil products. Companies measure these flows when, for example, the product changes owner, for tax purposes and - with several oil streams – in order to determine the size of the oil owner's contribution.
It pays to calibrate measurements: oil has become expensive and an improvement in measurement accuracy of as little as five one hundredths of a percent could make a difference of half a million dollars a week. Which is why inaccuracy in measuring must be kept to a bare minimum. The limited space available, especially on oil rigs, also led to new developments. Space is matter and matter costs money. Which is why it is necessary to use the available space extremely efficiently. In addition, flowmeters must also be capable of handling changes in product composition (e.g. from liquid gas to raw crude oil). And since less and less money is available for maintenance, flowmeters must be ever more reliable. However, conventional measuring methods in the product flow have numerous negative consequences for some measuring devices: the measuring device wears and has to be recalibrated for each liquid. A few years ago, ultrasonic flowmeters hit the market. They are not subject to wear and thus do not have to be constantly recalibrated. It is also no longer necessary to attach a filter in front of the device. Ultrasonic devices measure liquids and gases using sound waves and without touching the media.
One innovation over the past ten years is the implementation of metering skids based on ultrasonic flowmeters. These skids are much more compact than conventional skids as it is not necessary to attach a calibration system. The ultrasonic device measures the flows of various types of liquid - from liquid gas to raw crude oil. The shape of the flow profile is based on velocity and viscosity. While in operation the flowmeter automatically detects the present viscosity and configures itself accordingly. Thanks to this property it is completely independent of the product.
This requires, however, one calibration for every three products. And there are only two calibration facilities for oil products - one in Marseille and one in Paris (there are also 12 calibration facilities in Dordrecht but they are all water-based). The flowmeters are transported by truck to the facilities in France and do not return until a week later. The logistics and the time aspect are disadvantages that moved KROHNE Altometer to build its own calibration facility for oil products in Rotterdam. The new facility will perform various functions; in addition to calibration there will also be R&D and training sessions. It must become a worldwide showcase for this technology and must be accessible not only to KROHNE but to the whole market. To ensure objectivity, KROHNE looked for and found a suitable partner in the Dutch Measuring Institute (NMi). KROHNE will build the facility and the NMi will lease it to independently and autonomously perform flowmeter calibration, R&D and, possibly also for training sessions. KROHNE will be the first customer; the company will use the facility, into which approximately 12 million euro has been invested, to calibrate flowmeters and for R&D.
SOURCE: KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH & Co. KG