Phenol Pipeline Thermal Monitoring

The organic compound phenol must be heated above 54 °C to remain liquid and make pipeline transport possible. When a chemical company wanted to ensure a smooth and continuous flow, they selected AP Sensing for their thermal monitoring solution.

 

A single AP Sensing DTS device was installed to monitor the full 2.4 km phenol pipeline. The DTS was securely installed in a remote control room. The fiber optic sensor cable was installed under the pipeline's insulation, along the entire length of the pipeline. 

AP Sensing was selected due to its pipeline expertise, design proposals and the quality and reliability of our DTS systems. A fiber-optic based DTS system is ideally suited for thermal monitoring of heat tracing systems, as proven by a recent incident.

 

                    

 

A nearby lightning strike took out the grid power being supplied to the heat tracing system, causing the pipeline to cool down, and the phenol to solidify. The AP Sensing thermal monitoring system was used to carefully monitor the warm-up process and avoid undue thermal pipeline stress.

Valuable assets are protected, and employee safety levels increased, thanks to AP Sensing’s fiber optic solution and our expertise in designing, integrating and supervising such complex projects.