The Henrique Lage Refinery (Revap) located in Vale do Paraíba, in São José dos Campos-SP, has the need to drain LPG to distributors located in the region and billing is done through a LPG Measurement Station (Emed) . Revap is the third largest refinery in Brazil and one of the country's main suppliers of cooking gas.
Revap's Emed works with 400m measuring capacity3/h with two 8" sections #300. This Emed tends to be a model configuration to be adopted by Petrobras engineering in future LPG Emeds, with the Coriolis meter replacing the traditional turbine + densimeter. have a configuration with mass meters + turbine with densimeter (to compare results) and use butterfly valves for control with application of CVQ actuator, replacing, with greater precision and repeatability, actuators typically used in this application - control pneumatic or modulating electric.
The advantage of the CVQ actuator over a modulating actuator is that it uses a brushless motor, which allows fast response, low offset (dead band) and continuous control, with no limit on the number of activations per unit of time. Its weight is reduced, which allows its use in small valves without the need for support, and it can be mounted in any position.
Regarding the pneumatic actuator, the advantage of the CVQ actuator is that it does not need instrumentation air, thus avoiding the problems inherent to its use (maintenance of the air line, humidity, corrosion, clogging, etc.). The CVQ has a lower offset than the pneumatic actuator, which, as it depends on an elastic element – diaphragm – and a compressible medium – air, cannot have an immediate response, like a high-precision electric actuator. Another great advantage is the possibility of digital communication and diagnostics via 4-20mA + Hart for asset management.
Although not applied in this project, the CVQ actuator still has a fault position for power failure and/or command signal, through the use of a capacitor, and which can be configurable and changed after installation in the field.
With the endorsement of the Emed integrator, Revap chose the CVQ actuator for this application because of the above advantages, which it presents over other models, and because of its lower maintenance costs than other options. The Refinery also took into account the park installed in the refinery, which is predominantly Rotork – Pakscan, with after-sales service provided by Fluxo.