To measure the total flow of water withdrawn from the Cubatão River, RPBC (President Bernardes de Cubatão Refinery) acquired a non-intrusive two-channel flow measurement system from Siemens/Controlotron at the end of last year.
The installation of the meters was necessary due to a requirement by Cetesb that says that all the volume of water taken from the river must be accounted for. The water is captured through screw pumps that converge in two pipes, one 32" and the other 60", and then it is distributed to the entire refinery for the effluent treatment and cooling systems.
The oldest pipe, 60”, is more than 50 years old, however, due to the patented Wide-beam technology of the meters from Siemens/Controlotron, the installations were successful, even though the internal conditions of the pipe wall were unknown. The Wide-beam creates a beam that is wider than the transducer itself, which guarantees the correct functioning of the meter, even in conditions of low signal reception.
The installation of the non-intrusive meters was completed in two days, a time that can be considered very short, as it did not interfere with the water supply system for the refinery, a situation common to the installation of any intrusive system.
The refinery only had to gain by using non-intrusive technology. The installation gained more speed, reduced costs of equipment and services, not to mention indirect costs, since in the case of installing any intrusive meter, it would be necessary to stop the refinery.