Coriolis meters for fiscal metering

Coriolis flow meters provide precision and repeatability for metering of denatured alcohol at an Italian agro-industrial operation, as part of a project to upgrade the control and supervisory system.

Caviro Distillerie., one of the leading Italian agro-industrial groups, has installed Micro Motion Coriolis mass flow meters at its plant in Faenza, Italy. The installation is part of a project to upgrade the control and supervisory system at the plant, which produces wine and denatured alcohol and also processes the by-products into agricultural chemicals. The Coriolis meters meet the company’s need for highly accurate measurement devices that are accepted by the regulatory authorities for fiscal metering of alcohol products.

Most of the processes at the Faenza plant are continuous and operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. One exception is the denaturation unit, which manufactures product in batches. The process adds various chemicals to alcohol to make it suitable for further processing and also make it unfit for human consumption. Micro Motion Coriolis mass flow meters accurately measure the alcohol and precise mix of denaturation additives as they are discharged into a road tanker parked in the loading bay. The chemicals then mix within the tanker to produce the denatured alcohol.

Alcohol that has not been denatured is subject to excise duty and therefore the denaturing process is closely monitored by the company’s finance office to ensure that the excise duty is removed from that portion of the plant's output. The Micro Motion meters provide the extremely accurate measurements that the finance office needs to satisfy the revenue authorities.

“In order to obtain a precise measurement of the alcohol and the dosage of the various additives, we searched the market for mass flow meters that were capable of guaranteeing an optimum level of precision and operation reproducibility,” said Gabriele Bassi, responsible for the instrument engineering department at Caviro.

“We needed to ensure the meters were accurate enough to satisfy the fiscal authorities,” explained Alessandro Catani, responsible for Caviro Distillerie Utilities Management. “We compared the specifications and performance of the various devices that are available and specified Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeters for this demanding application.”

The plant upgrade project was based on Emerson’s PlantWeb digital plant architecture, which included a DeltaV digital automation system, AMS Suite predictive maintenance software, and intelligent field devices including the Micro Motion Coriolis meters, Rosemount pressure and temperature transmitters, and Fisher control valves.