By Björg Otte, BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH and Jörg Sacher, FLEXIM GmbH
Non-invasive high temperature flow measurements in the Ruhr Oel Gelsenkirchen Refinery.
Due to its practical advantages, external flow measurement with clamp-on ultrasonic transducers has become a standard measuring technique over the past twenty years. Experts are more than happy to resort to non-invasive technology when it comes to measuring the flow of complex media. The main challenges involved in reprocessing heavy crude oil fractions are high viscosity, solid bodies and high temperatures.
When the city name Gelsenkirchen is mentioned, most contemporaries will initially think of the FC Schalke 04 men dressed in blue and white and then possibly of the extraction and processing of coal, the proverbial black gold of the Ruhr region, but not of the production of liquid fuels from mineral oil. In fact, Gelsenkirchen is a very important refinery location. With a total processing capacity of over 12 million tons of crude oil per year, both plants in Gelsenkirchen’s city districts Scholven and Horst are among Germany’s largest processing plants for mineral oil. The plants belong to Ruhr Oel GmbH and are operated by BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH.