Process Vision

Description

LineVu reveals contamination in high pressure natural gas systems that until now has been un-detected. Despite commercial and legal contracts requiring that no liquids or solids should enter a gas network, it is common to find that liquid contamination is the cause of damage to power stations and other plant all over the world. LineVu is a camera system that can be permanently installed on high pressure natural gas systems. When installed downstream of a gas/liquid separator it provides a live video stream of the gas leaving the separator system. Image processing is used to provide operators with a highly sensitive alarm if there is a break-through that contaminates the gas stream. By monitoring the efficiency of gas/liquid separation systems LineVu provides game-changing safety and financial benefits.

Improving Foam Management in Gas Treatment

Liquid carryover in gas treatment causes foaming in amine and glycol contactors. Normal practice is to use de-foamer to recover from a foaming event. This often requires a reduction in gas flow rate until the foam is under control. Current practice is to monitor pressure drop across the contactor. Now, with LineVu reporting a carryover event before foaming starts, de-foamer can be added to prevent foam rather than recover from it, without loss of production.

Improving Condensate Recovery

After gas treatment, it is important to recover as much of the premium condensate from the gas as possible. Processing liquids (usually glycol) can be carried over from gas treatment and freeze in the dew pointing equipment. This causes temperature control problems and can partially block the liquid removal process, and a combination of glycol and condensate are lost down the gas export line. When LineVu reveals liquid carryover from gas treatment, flows can be adjusted to find the optimum flow until the problem is diagnosed and repaired.

Flow Assurance

Using LineVu at custody transfer points improves accountability for pipeline contamination incidents. Gas is bought and sold at custody transfer points on a dry gas basis. LineVu is revealing glycol and compressor oil carryover that, up to now, passed on-line gas analysers without tripping an alarm. With the extra knowledge that the gas is wet, flow computers can be corrected, operators can make better decisions regarding the acceptability of gas, and pigging operations can be optimised.

The Camera Can in the LineVu system is mounted above a pipeline, normally behind a double block and bleed valve, thereby providing a “stand-off”, meaning that any contamination present in the gas flow does not foul the optics of the instrument.

The data from the Camera Can can be fed to one of three possible user interfaces:

Documentation

Data Sheet