How Wireless Technology Takes Pump Monitoring to Extremes

An Indian refining company is using multiple pipe line division pumps to continually pump fluids from the refinery to the terminals for sale. These pumps must be kept running constantly in order to maintain production. Any mechanical damage to the equipment will result in an emergency breakdown at the pumping station.

To protect the pumps, each one has a supply of lubrication oil that passes through the bearing housing and returns back to the lube oil reservoir. To monitor this, a sight glass on the flow line provides visual indication of the fluid levels. However, the fluid level varies depending on whether the circulation is on or off making it difficult to record accurate level information.

The manual checking involved reading the oil levels at the right time and keeping accurate records of the supply. However, trying to keep track of the lube oil supply at each pump was proving to be an impossible task. To protect the pumps from damage, all the company needed to know was when the reservoir level dropped to a defined low point.

To automate this procedure and provide accurate and reliable oil level measurements, Emerson’s Rosemount 2160 Wireless Point Level Switches were installed on each of the oil reservoirs. The 2160’s connect wirelessly to Emerson’s 1420 Wireless Gateway which provides a Modbus connection to the host system. The Rosemount 2160’s monitor the reservoir levels and generate an alarm when a critical low point is reached. Reservoirs needing an additional supply of lube oil can now be immediately identified and supplies replenished before any damage occurs to the machine.

Instead of relying on manual checks of the sight glasses, the Rosemount wireless level transmitters provide real time data to the operators. Since the process information is now available over the network and visible in the control room, manual collection of data is eliminated and the status of the reservoirs is known without going into the plant.

The improved monitoring of lubrication oil has reduced operating costs and provided the pumps with a higher level of protection against mechanical breakdown. This in turn has increased the availability of the pumps to run the pipelines.