Product category:
Gas monitoring and analysis
News Release from: Servomex | Subject: Servomex 2700 at BP Hull
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 February 2008
Six combustion gas analysers help BP
Chemicals
Servomex oxygen and combustibles analysers supplied for a refurbishment project at the BP Chemicals acetic acid production plant in Hull have contributed to a significantly reduced fuel consumption
BP Chemicals has invested GBP20million in the refurbishment project at its acetic acid production plant in Hull One element of the upgrade to the steam reformer is the installation of six Servomex 2700 combustion gas analysers and a manual calibration and control panel, which have contributed to reduced fuel consumption and savings of GBP500kpa
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 3 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Four Servomex 2700 combustion gas analysers have been employed in the arch section: two analysers are installed to ensure accuracy on each of the east and west furnaces, this is due to the length of each furnace and the resultant potential for changes in the air register openings along that length.
A further two analysers have been installed to monitor the flue gases.
All six analysers measure both oxygen and combustibles (COe), whereas the analysers they replaced only measured oxygen.
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This ability to measure COe gives the plant operators the confidence needed to run the furnace with lower oxygen levels, which helps to reduce the amount of natural gas burnt.
One of the reasons why BP Chemicals chose to purchase the combustion gas analysers from Servomex was that one Servomex 2700 analyser had already been used successfully elsewhere on the plant.
Furthermore, prior to placing the order, the engineers at BP Chemicals had established that Servomex was the only company able to supply an analyser that would permit the transmitter to be mounted sufficiently far from the control unit.
In the Hull plant, the control units had to be mounted at ground floor level, while the sensor heads are at fourth floor level.
Two different technologies are employed within the Servomex 2700 sensor head; oxygen is measured using a zirconium oxide sensor, giving high accuracy and a fast response, while levels of carbon monoxide equivalents are monitored using a thick film catalytic sensor that gives a precision of +/-25ppm, with sufficient sensitivity and speed of response to enable the combustion process to be continuously fine-tuned.
Both of these sensing technologies are highly reliable, non-depleting, and can operate for extended periods without requiring attention.
Furthermore, the thick film catalytic combustibles transducer is considerably less affected by cross-interference from other background gases such as water and carbon dioxide, than transducers that use alternative sensing technologies.
Gary Garner, Analyser Performance Engineer at the BP Chemicals Hull plant, comments: "BP Chemicals has used Servomex analysers since the 1970s and we have always been pleased with the system performance and reliability, as well as the technical support from Servomex.
Given the excellent experience we already had with the initial Servomex 2700 combustion gas analyser, we had no hesitation in specifying them for the steam reformer refurbishment.
Furthermore, these were the only combustion gas analysers on the market that enabled us to separate the control units and sensor heads by 70m".
Servomex worked with BP Chemicals to ensure that the probes and control units were correctly matched to the application, and Servomex also designed and built a bespoke manual calibration and control panel system to serve all six analysers.
More information about the Servomex 2700 combustion gas analysers, as well as other Servomex gas analysers, all of which are available and fully supported worldwide, can be found on the website or obtained from Servomex direct.
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