Visualization of recovered palm oil using portable ECT imager in extraction palm oil process

Abstract

A portable Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) imager for a palm oil process monitoring system is developed and presented in this work. Intended as a support instrument, the system will enable local and foreign palm oil mills to control efficiently the flow process monitoring of crude palm oil in conveying pipelines during extraction. This monitoring system enables the visualization of the liquid percentage inside the vessel, and the data obtained can then be used to design better mill process equipment or control certain processes. Thus, the quality of crude palm oil can be maximized and the process of palm oil mill effluent treatment improved. In previous studies, ECT was developed rapidly and used successfully for multiphase flow measurements in many applications in the oil and gas industry, gas/solids cyclones, milk flows, and fluidized beds. The present work experimentally investigates the capability of portable ECT sensors with 16 electrodes to identify the concentration, velocity profile, and phase concentration of crude palm oil in related multiphase systems (liquid and gas).