Coriolis mass meter improves Adria–Wien oil pipeline operations 20 December 2012

Replacing turbine flowmeters on the Austrian Adria-Wien crude oil pipeline with Coriolis mass meters has reduced maintenance issues and enabled continuous custody transfer accuracy.

"Concerns over reliability and maintenance of the existing turbine meters prompted our upgrade to the latest measurement technology," explains Ing Walter Fellner, of Adria-Wien Pipeline.

"We chose Emerson's Micro Motion Elite high-capacity flowmeters, because they are maintenance-free and exceeded our accuracy requirements for custody transfer," he adds.

Emerson supplied two of its Coriolis mass flowmeters with MVD (multivariable digital) transmitters, fitting them in parallel to the refinery in-feed lines so they could be installed individually, without interrupting crude flow.

The meters have equipped with Emerson's Smart Meter Verification automatic diagnostic tool, which verifies meter performance (sensor, drive and signal processing), also without interrupting flow. And they have Rosemount 3144P transmitters to provide temperature compensation, as required by MID (Measuring Instruments Directive) regulations.

Data from the Coriolis meters and temperature transmitters is now communicated directly to the existing control system via RS485 Modbus.

The Austrian pipeline carries crude from the Transalpine pipeline at the Italian-Austrian border to the Schwechat refinery near Vienna.

Brian Tinham

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