The volume of diesel used for production or distribution does, in most cases, determine if a user would be willing to invest in an automatic tank level sensor and controller. Agriculture uses approximately 2% of the annual volume of diesel consumed for production. This diesel is distributed to 100 000 farmers directly and Liquid Automation Systems (LAS) can provide a cost effective solution for monitoring tank levels and reporting to ensure that stock is re-ordered in time.
The 200 larger depots in South Africa use high accuracy level measuring equipment and LAS can supply all the necessary services and equipment to this industry. The following might be of concern to farmers:
* Running out of stock and having to wait for a delivery.
* Uncertainty when calculating volumes for tax rebates.
* Inaccuracies that make it difficult to reconcile stock level back to hours of production.
* The danger associated with opening of tanks for dipping.
* Dirt entering the tank during dipping or dirt on the dipstick contaminating product in the tanks.
Larger depots might be concerned with some additional issues:
* Illegal deliveries that are not detected.
* Fraud at the pumps.
* Water contamination that is not detected at an early stage.
Automatic tank gauging has the following advantages:
* Quick and easy to install.
* Wireless monitoring and SMS alerts available.
* Detection of predetermined re-order levels.
* High/low level alarms.
* Automatic and accurate reconciliation of volumes.
* Delivery detection with confirmation of volume, date and time.
* Static leak detection to EPA 1, 2 and 3.
* Early water detection with local and remote alerts.
* Integration with back office system for reliable dip readings.
* Detection of illegal deliveries.
Level measurement options available from LAS
LAS’s partnership with Sensile has opened up new opportunities that allow farmers to profit using its easy to install tank level measuring systems.
The Sensile Netris A is a battery operated unit requiring no wiring for power. Tank level sensors are connected to the Netris unit, one for product level and one for a reference pressure. Temperature can also be measured by specifying the correct probe. Communication is via the latest Netris W unit that can communicate wirelessly to 10 Netris R units in the field, thus reducing cabling and simplifying installation.
LAS’s partnership with Hectronic gives depot owners access to a wide range of accurate measurement devices. The Optilevel automatic tank gauging (ATG) system consists of three components.
The Controller 104M can control up to 30 tanks on a site. It features an integral display and keypad with a network and serial port to communicate to remote software. A slip printer prints delivery reports, alarms and tank levels on site. The 104M software can detect a delivery into a tank while the tank is isolated for receipts.
The HLS3010 tank gauge sensor is suitable for aboveground and underground tanks. It utilises capacitive reactance measurement technology to accurately measure the product level to within mm. It is constructed of stainless steel and coated in Teflon, has no moving parts and can withstand tank pressures up to 25 bar.
The Optilevel Supply is utilised to supply the probes, to galvanically separate the intrinsically safe current circuit and to convert the current-loop data to serial interface. It can handle up to eight probes, or can be used in a master/slave configuration to handle 32 probes.
LAS’s locally developed software system, Opti-MIM, provides a monitoring capability for the ATG systems that is either Web-based or can be installed on the user’s computer.
For more information contact Willie Bouwer, Liquid Automation Systems, technical solutions manager, +27 (0)11 397 3780, [email protected] or Wendy Lemmer, Sales and Marketing, [email protected], www.liquidauto.co.za
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