Case Study: Flow Meters
Case Study: Flow Meters
COMPANY
Solvay – Augusta, Georgia
BACKGROUND
Solvay’s Specialty Polymers site in Augusta, Georgia experienced issues with recapturing an important process byproduct which was to be refined into new product. Solvay’s existing cone-type flow meter measured the steam flow to the byproduct recovery process. The byproduct is valuable to the customer and a significant amount was being lost due to inaccurate flow measurements. Solvay required a flow meter as part of the control loop for steam flow to a tank to help temper the process so that this particular byproduct was easily recovered.
However, their existing flow meter was unable to measure the low end flow rates thus provided inaccurate measurements which hampered Solvay’s ability to recapture the most byproduct. Solvay was losing not only primary product, but money as well since the majority of the byproduct was not being recaptured.
SCOPE OF WORK
Solvay needed a quick solution with minimal installation requirements to minimize the amount of wasted byproduct. The solutions was to design and install a stainless steel Veris Accelabar® flow meter from Armstrong with face-to-face dimensions matching those of the cone-type meter to not interrupt Solvay’s piping configuration. Solvay dropped out the failed meter and quickly replaced it with a ready-to-install Accelabar® for a short order solution.
BENEFITS
The Accelabar® successfully tracked the steam flow over the entire operating flow range. The readings from the Accelabar® matched with the readings from a Coriolis meter tracking boiler feedwater. This gave Solvay 100% confidence that the steam measurements detected were correct. Ultimately, the Accelabar® improved Solvay’s process control in recovering a valuable byproduct being used for resale.
For more info on Accelabar contact the team at Campbell-Sevey.