Level Solutions for Crude Oil Storage
The naturally occurring liquid form of petroleum is known as crude oil. Each day, crude oil is brought to petroleum refineries. Upon arrival at the refinery terminal, crude oil is pumped into above-ground storage tanks with capacities of thousands to millions of gallons. Raw crude is stored in floating- or fixed-roof tanks field-built to API standards. Proper crude oil storage is the first step to refined petroleum.
Magnetrol® has produced an applications brochure for the petroleum refining industry detailing measurement challenges and solutions for each step of the refining process. This blog post is part of an occasional series exploring each application in detail.
Level Measurement Challenges and Considerations
Crude oil storage tank level is maintained by valve actuation. By triggering an emergency cutoff, level controls prevent overflows and shut down pumps when level falls below low level. This helps to reduce or eliminate accidents. Safety-certified controls may be necessary due to crude’s low flash point.
Traditionally, mechanical float gauges and servo gauges have been used to measure crude oil storage tanks. However, tank level measurement by non-contact radar has gained share over mechanical float type and servo gauges due to its accuracy, low maintenance, and lack of moving parts.
Level Measurement Solutions
MAGNETROL has produced level measurement solutions for crude oil storage tanks:
- Model A15 displacer-actuated level switch
- Pulsar® Model R86 pulse burst radar
- Eclipse® Model 706 guided wave radar transmitter with 7YI flexible single cable probe
More Information
For more information on level solutions for crude oil storage and other petroleum refining applications,download the petroleum refining brochure.
