Internal Presence Detection of Offshore Production Separators

Much of the operational cost related to offshore production and processing facilities can be associated with revenue losses in terms of unnecessary maintenance shut-downs and extended maintenance down-times due to failures, for which there has been limited preparation time. By being able to accurately monitor the condition of process equipment one can expect a reduction of such revenue losses. Implementation of Non-Intrusive Inspection methods also reduces personnel exposure to hazardous environments, e.g. during Internal Visual Inspection.
The article describes a concept for Condition Monitoring of offshore production separators, with focus on internal presence detection, where the traditional method is based on visual inspections at predefined intervals. Non-Intrusive Inspection of separator internals is difficult, but a concept for doing so is being developed with support from the Norwegian Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry which has participation from the Norwegian research institutes MARINTEK, SINTEF, IFE and NTNU. The concept will include a separator design that can improve Condition Monitoring for many sensor technologies together with new sensor systems specifically tailored to monitoring of separator internals. The laboratory set-up is described, together with methods that will be tested, such as gamma and acoustic monitoring. Early results are provided on monitoring using passive acoustic sensors