Monitoring Flammable Fluid Levels in a Recycling Facility

Petroleum recycling plants have unique problems in monitoring solvents in mobile tanks that are moved by semi-truck. Because these fluids are flammable, a Class I, Division 1 solution is required.

These trucks move throughout the facility to allow access to stored solvents as needed during different phases of the refining process. The facilities take in multiple kinds of solvents and oils from local industrial sites to reprocess and/or clean. After the solvents are cleaned, they are returned to the industrial site or sold for reuse.

Traditionally, personnel from the recycling plant would manually measure the tanker trucks and log the available quantities by hand on clipboards. At the end of the day, these amounts are logged to keep track of available product and remaining storage space. The values can be inaccurate and cause ongoing problems in production, resulting in costly delays.

Alternative data collection solutions are possible with Banner’s DX99 900 MHz radios in CID1 housings and the B/W Prostick magnetostrictive level devices. Using the appropriate antenna barrier, the result is a Class 1 Division 1 wireless monitoring solution that provides real-time data anywhere within the facility.

With the battery powered DX99 units and the loop powered Prostick, installation into the 8' flanged tanks takes only a few minutes.

Accurate level data is available for daily reports, can be seen using a color HMI display, or viewed using a browser from workstation throughout the company.  Reports are readily available via standard .csv files for importation into Excel.

Solvent levels in all trucks can be monitored from the control room using a visual HMI display as well as on the company network.