STEAM TRAPS
Waste heat revalorization for the total lithium battery suppresion in steam pipeline sensing
Overall numbers in an oil refinery
20,000 Steam Traps
These are the typical steam traps located in a medium-sized oil refinery
Steam Leaks
A conventional locked steam trap lose from 4 kg/h up to 15 kg/h of steam.
1,200 USD / Year
Working 8,000 hour / year, with 15 kg/h of Steam at 10 USD / 1000kg.
Development stage
1st Stage- 2021
1st pilot developed for measuring steam leaks in a steam pipe of soybean plant. Equipment fully powered by waste heat.
Goal achieved!
LoRaWAN IoT device with 2km of wireless range, developed under ATEX constraints, measuring Delta T in the steam trap every 2 minutes.
2nd Stage- 2022
Ultrasound fine tunning to detect steam whislisting in combination with Delta T, to supress false-positives commonly found in previous versions. Ready in Q2-2022 with CE Mark and ATEX certification
First Pilot installed in BUNGE
- Uses waste heat from the steam pipeline for powering the steam leaks detection devices:
- Temperature 105º
- Fast and low-cost deployment: estimated ROY of 10 months
- High precision and accuracy
- Inlet/outlet temperature and ultrasounds
- Yearly savings 1,300€ for 1 unit’s pilot:
- Steam leaks
- Audits
- Battery replacements
Project partners
Project cofinanced by the Catalan Government- ACCIÓ- Nuclis d’economia Circulat.
