Fluxo started the year with the expansion of its portfolio: in March it signed a representation agreement with Permasense®, starting to work in applications for monitoring corrosion and erosion in pipes. Permasense® is a British company, world leader in the field of continuous corrosion monitoring for oil and gas production facilities and refineries.
The complete corrosion monitoring system includes, in its basic mode, a sensor, a gateway responsible for collecting field data and distributing it to a supervisor, and a dedicated software for online data analysis. These sensors can be ET (for low temperature pipes) and WT (for high temperature pipes) and can be fixed by means of screws welded to the pipe, straps or magnetic bar.
The sensors use the ultrasonic measurement principle and in a non-intrusive way, which facilitates installation and maintenance. The communication between the sensors and the gateway is wireless, making our system much simpler and at the same time more efficient than traditional architectures.
In 2013, the Permasense® solution was implemented at the Landulpho Alves Refinery, in Bahia, and is still operational today. In this installation, the system was composed of 60 sensors installed in different areas of four units of the refinery, periodically collecting data referring to the thickness of the pipes. The data collected by the sensors are continuously analyzed by the dedicated software, and provide crucial information to reduce operating costs, since this monitoring allows the use of the minimum necessary of corrosion inhibitor products. The corrosion monitoring system is done online via wireless, and sends the data to Rlam's network in real time.