Custody Transfer (also known as Fiscal Metering) in the oil & gas industry refers to the transactional transfer of a substance, raw or refined, from one party (owner) to another.

Typically when a custody transfer is taking place, the end goal is to determine the value or payment between two parties for the physical substance (gas or liquid) that has exchanged hands via pipeline. For that reason, the flow instrument that measures the total amount of product changing ownership can be viewed as a cash register between the two parties.

According to the HART® Communications Foundation, there are more than 30 million HART-enabled instruments installed in chemical and process plants worldwide, and nearly most process transmitters made today are HART compatible.

This blog was originally posted by Yokogawa.

Optimum control of production to avoid unnecessary costs

Raw materials and end products are accepted, processed, stored and delivered in almost all industrial processes. In order to optimally control production while avoiding unnecessary costs and ensuring product quality, the volume flows must be recorded correctly and seamlessly. This task should be solved as precisely as possible and with minimum pressure losses. The application-specific parameters must, of course, be taken into account, such as the type and composition of the medium to be measured, process pressure and temperature range.

Trace moisture measurements in gas applications often appear to be simple and straight forward because the theory is relatively well understood; however, when the analyzer system is in service and we see unexpected measurement results, the head scratching begins.

Electrically everything appears to be correct so we assume the probe/sensor must be out of specification, right???

This blog was originally posted by Fox Thermal.

Fox Thermal manufactures a full line of advanced thermal mass flow meters. Each flow meter is manufactured to strict quality standards, calibrated to NIST standards in their state-of-the-art calibration labs, and customized for your application needs.

Food manufacturing facilities, agricultural farms, chemical plants and other industrial plants use tanks and silos for storage of necessary processing ingredients or end product. Monitoring the levels of these steel storage vaults is essential for inventory control and safety. But, tank level monitoring is often a challenging task.

This blog post was originally posted by Yokogawa.

In almost any chemical production facility, various substances frequently have to be stored temporarily in tanks or tank farms. Depending on the chemical substance involved, this circumstance can sometimes entail a risk of explosion. Elementary protection must therefore be provided to rule out the possibility of explosion. Ideally, this protection should prevent an explosive gas mixture from forming in the tank’s gas phase in the first place. This can be achieved by inerting the gas phase by blanketing it with nitrogen.

The adoption of ultrasonic flow meter technology into process control applications for liquids has been limited to some extent and only applied as a “flow technology of last resort”, when process conditions are beyond the capabilities of other technologies.

A common problem in the oil and gas industry is unreliable readings causing false alarms that cost millions of dollars in lost revenue annually. Safety systems triggered by the detection of potentially hazardous gases typically shut down processes and facilities to prevent a potential catastrophe. But when a false alarm triggers the safety system, productivity is lost while the alarm origin is investigated, false alarm status is verified, and processes are slowly brought back online.

This blog was originally posted by MSA Safety.

You’ve decided that your facility would benefit from the installation and implementation of a gas detection system. Congratulations on a big step in the right direction toward improving the overall safety of your facility and your workers. Now comes the fun part, selecting the right technology to meet the needs of your application. While it might seem like an overwhelming task, you’re not in it alone as there are experts in the field who can help you understand exactly what you need, and why.