Real-Time 3-D Volume Imaging and Mass-Gauging of High Temperature Flows and Power System Components in a Fossil Fuel Reactor Using Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography

Advanced instrumentation for energy processes is critical for improving efficiencies, controlling emissions, and optimizing process control. Multiphase flow processes are an integral part of almost all energy generation systems. Monitoring and controlling energy generation multiphase flow processes requires instrumentation that can withstand the harsh conditions of energy processes, is noninvasive, easy to implement, can be scaled to various dimensions, and can be operated in different multiphase flow combinations of gases, liquids, and solids. Such solutions are currently scarce and very expensive. Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (ECVT) has emerged recently as a viable solution for advanced multiphase flow instrumentation. The overall approach of Phase I/Phase II project involved developing ECVT sensors and algorithms to withstand the harsh conditions of energy processes. That effort concluded with a demonstration unit capable of withstanding temperatures up to 900C for a gas-solid flow system. The unit was used to demonstrate operation on a multiphase flow system of air/iron-oxide flow in a Chemical looping reactor. Algorithms were also developed to calculate the mass flow rate in this gas-solid reactor. In this sequential Phase IIB project, we intend to expand the application of ECVT technology beyond gas-solid applications. In the year after concluding the first Phase II effort and developing the first prototype; we received purchase orders from customer interested in the gas-liquid and gas-solid-liquid applications. The plan in Phase II B is to further develop the ECVT technology and work on a prototype for those applications. The conditions for those new applications involve high pressures, high temperatures, and liquid phases. The liquids nature of those applications requires more research and development to adapt the first prototype design, materials and algorithms to address this need. (attached are two purchase orders we received, one for a geothermal gas- liquid application and the other for gas-liquid-solid application in the Oil industry) Future commercial applications involve a variety of multiphase flow instrumentation for phase measurement of liquid flow rate in geothermal pipes, Oil flow rate in Oil pipelines, Solid flow rates in feedstock feeders, and three phase measurements in advanced energy processes. Those applications are crucial to advancing the energy industry and spurring economic growth.