Solutions For Tanks

Common Problems Inside Storage Tanks

Common problems inside storage tanks are related to emulsion, water and solids as they cause production stops and may damage equipment if they enter the outlet. Knowing the tank's level, layers and their interfaces are vital for assuring continuous production and high-quality throughput. Any and all problems regarding storage tanks can rack up the costs to a sky-high number, whether it is from treatment costs, deferred production, unplanned - or even emergency - shutdown.

Storage tank is a challenging environment and knowing it's actual contents is a real challenge. Traditional instrumentation may struggle with contamination and emulsion, manual sampling is a major HSE risk and while nucleonic devices may be unhindered by the conditions, the speed and ease of use is a challenge itself.

Rocsole's Solution and Benefits

Here at Rocsole, we've developed our systems to work accurately in hostile environments without posing any HSE risks or without the burden of handling nucleonic devices, while offering a real-time profile of the tank. The systems consists of a computer, an electronics cabinet (IECEx certification available) and the sensor - Rocsole Tank Profiler.

Rocsole's solution allows the operator to get the process insights of the tank emulsion layers and level interfaces without any interruption due to complex process fluids. The sensors are virtually unaffected by surface fouling and contamination and works in harsh environments providing rich data allowing for real-time monitoring and predictive analytics. We provide process insights for stable emulsions, rag layers, bitumen, froth layers and solids buildup.

Avoid H₂S safety risk when working with manual samples in tanks

Non-nucleonic

Safe, improved HSE
Reduced admin

Oil field life cycle optimization

Increased production throughput

Reduced need for Shutdowns & optimized chemical costs

Improved separation efficiency by optimizing the emulsion

Real-time process optimization

Improves asset environmental compliance

Low maintenance

24/7 data monitoring all data to database

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Rocsole Tank Profiler

To reap the benefits of the Tank Profiler, it is available in two flavours:

A permanent installation
As a service (Liquid In-Tank Inspection or LITI for short)

With permanent installation, we deliver the Tank Profiler system for you. It is easy to install and does not require modifications to the target. Commissioning can be done remotely or on-site.

Liquid In-Tank Inspection (LITI)

We also use Tank Profiler to provide Liquid In-Tank Inspection service, in which we scan the tanks contents on-site and deliver the results soon afterwards.

This is the easiest way to inspect the contents of one or more tanks in one go at a minimal cost in processes where no real-time results are required.

The services can be done on a permanent basis, on a regularity or by-demand. Rocsole is the first company bringing tomographic imaging to the oil & gas industry enabling a new level of process optimization for challenging operations to provide better product quality, higher output, reducing operational costs and improving safety levels.

In Liquid In-Tank Inspection (LITI), each of the tanks' contents are scanned and the results delivered later.

Rocsole Profiler vs. Nucleonic Device

We have also conducted tests in which we compared our Profiler's performance against nucleonic device. Rocsole Profiler was installed to a separator in a medium scale three-phase flow loop. Test runs were performed between November 6th, 2018 and November 26th, 2018.

Raw measurements were recorded with approximately 1 Hz frame rate. 127 density profiles were recorded with a nucleonic gamma scanner. Gamma scanner moves vertically and gives point-wise measurements (one complete scan taking 15-20 minutes).

Profiler measures conductivities, which are converted to water cut and then compared to profiles produced by the gamma scanner. The table below shows result comparisons of both sensors with a one minute time resolution.

Rocsole Profilers are See Beyond compliant.

As the Profiler utilizes Rocsole's See Beyond technology, which means that it is not affected by contamination unlike traditional instrumentation, all the results from the Profiler are computed with a same set of algorithms and parameters and without calibration in between the measurements.

The purpose of the test campaign was to verify the performance of the Rocsole profiler vs. typical nucleonic device (reference)

	Rocsole	Nucleonic
Measurement time	1 second	15-20 minutes
Installation type	Fixed	Vertical movement (0.04 in/s, 1.00 mm/s)
Operating principle	Electrical conductivity *	Density *

Rocsole profiler was installed in a 3-phase separator in a closed medium scale multi-phase flow loop. Test runs were performed between November 6th, 2018 and November 26th, 2018.

Note that Gamma water cut (cyan) is closer to the first water cut profile in the bottom part of the tank …and close to the last profile in upper part of the tank.

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