Turkish refinery improves reliability

The state-owned Tüpraş refinery in Izmir, Turkey, has placed an order for a tank gauging system that includes 85 wireless TankRadar Rex radar level gauges.

The order follows Tüpraş Izmir’s extensive testing of 21 additional devices in the same application. Emerson Process Management’s gauging system will provide accurate, reliable level measurements on some of the refinery’s most critical oil-movement tanks.

The Izmir facility has a refining capacity of 11 million tons/year and storage capacity of 1.9 million cubic metres in 164 tanks – including 44 lube-oil storage tanks that were already being monitored using wired TankRadar Rex level gauges from Emerson. On other tanks however, the existing non-Emerson gauging system sometimes had communication problems and gave incorrect readings because of damage to cables during excavations in the field. In addition, support personnel were not always available when needed. 

Tüpraş first considered replacing the trouble-prone older system with additional wired TankRadar Rex level gauges, which had proven to be very reliable, accurate and almost maintenance-free since they were installed at the refinery in 2007. Because the tanks are spread over a large area and existing cabling and junction boxes were not up to standard, the high cabling and installation costs of this approach made wireless technology more appealing.

“Ground conditions make excavation for new cable runs difficult, but with Emerson’s Smart Wireless solution we can minimise costs for cabling, cable trenches, conduits, and cable trays,” said Ali Erener, project chief engineer at Tüpraş Izmir. “Going wireless also gives us the flexibility to add more devices in the future – not only for level and temperature measurements, but also for tank water control and nitrogen pressure control at our blanketing tanks, which are far from the control room, as well as other applications.”

The refinery chose Emerson’s solution not only for the proven performance of its wireless technology, but also for ease of use and ongoing support. “Because operations personnel will use the gauging system in their daily work, we required it to be user-friendly,” said operations superintendent Mustafa Atalay, who has worked at Tüpraş Izmir for more than 34 years. “It’s also important to have a good relationship with the supplier to get the most out of the system.”

The IEC 62591 (WirelessHART®) field network at the Izmir refinery will have a node for each tank, including a TankRadar Rex radar level gauge installed with an antenna unit, a Smart Wireless THUM Adapter, and a multiple spot temperature sensor to enable accurate volume calculations.

Temperature and level data will be sent wirelessly to a Smart Wireless gateway, which serves as the network manager and provides an interface to the refinery’s TankMaster inventory software or control system. The TankMaster software has also been upgraded to include batch calculation for product transfers.