VEGA have offered simple guided microwave radar level solutions for compressor knock out drums for various oil and gas platforms. The radar is installed in a suitable bridal for the 0-100 % range and can also have a magnetic indicator showing the level for dual redundancy systems. The temperature and pressures we would be looking at would be 80 degree and 85 bar, which is low as our radar range can reach up to 450 degrees and 450 bar! The issue with the knock out drums is that part of the process is condensate water that has a low dielectric value of about 1.6 and within the bottom of the bridal there could be water with a dielectric of 80. The radar will see the higher dielectric water at the bottom of the bridal and the magnetic level indicator will see the top level of the condensate water. So the solution ( if you cannot drain the water ) is to set the radar up for ‘1st large echo’ and change the Db threshold from 3 to 30. This will prevent the radar looking at any other products through the low dielectric condensate water. This easy parameter change is done by using Pactware software that can be downloaded free of charge from our website. This is a simple solution to a major process problem for offshore applications and by understanding the process we can offer reliable advice for critical applications that involve process trip faults.

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