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CO-ORDINATED ACTIVITY ON PROGRESS TOMOGRAPHY FOR IMPROVING THE DESIGN AND OPERATION OF INDUSTRIAL PROCESS

Exploitable results

Concerted action have included: 19 trials performed on industrial sites within the programme and additional identification of sites for future work; development of new sensing methods and designs for sensors; new pre-prototype version tomographic instrumentation available for use; new process control applications which illustrate potential benefits of the measurement science; new insights into the some fundamental process engineering problems, in particular, in mixing phenomena and multi-phase flows in the oil and other industries. The concerted action was assessed by the participants to be a considerable success. The particular outcomes which enhanced the competitive advantage of the participants and the EU community were: establishment of a vibrant and world-leading on-line tomographic sensor activity which has a lifetime beyond the concerted action itself; formation of a cohesive set of collaborators from different disciplines and geographic areas from academe and industry; significant advancement of technology towards industrial implementation; specific forward plans for wider spread implementation leading to demonstration of industrial benefits in the near future (ie speeding up progress) and new research programmes.
An instrumentation and data recognition system has been developed to allow rapid imaging (100 frame/s) of electrically conducting liquids, slurries and emulsions. The method is based on electrical resistance tomography, and enables visualization of conductivity profiles within one or more cross sections in a process pipe or reactor. The sensor electrodes are robust and low cost. Imaging allows optimization of process design and a means of validating fluid flow models.
Compared with medical tomography systems, capacitance tomography systems produce relatively low resolution images, but at high speed and at a fraction of the cost of medical systems. They are suitable for use in aggressive industrial environments and provide a cost effective solution for producing images of multiphase components and flows. Where the dielectric constants of the individual components in the vessel are known, the relative quantities (volumetric ratios) of the different materials inside the vessel can be determined in real time. Applications identified to date include powder conveying, flame, combustion and explosion imaging, mineral processing, fluidized bed imaging, wood rot assessment, hydrate formation and catalyst structure imaging. In general, the capacitance tomography system can be used to monitor any process where the fluid to be observed has low electrical conductivity.

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