Measurement of void fraction by using electrical capacitance sensor and differential pressure in air-water bubble flow

Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is a non-intrusive type of Process Tomography, which is used for obtaining information about the distribution of the contents of closed pipes by measuring variations in the dielectric properties of the material inside the vessel. In process industries, the measurement of void fraction is considerably important for sustainable operations. The erroneous calculation of void fraction is inevitably be the cause of many industrial accidents such as sweet corrosions in sub-sea oil and gas pipelines and an inefficient process control of chemical plants. The customary approach separates the two-phases first and then measures the mixture as individual components that results in the disruption of incessant industrial processes. Due to these limitations, this study is aimed to analyze a non-invasive, experimental study by using Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) and differential pressure (ΔP) technique on a flow loop. This paper presents the measurements of void fraction obtained from ECT and ΔP using air and deionized water. Based on these measurements, the future work is to apply these techniques on the waxy crude in order to determine the void fraction. The estimation of void fraction in a bubble column via ECT and ΔP shows the influence of superficial gas velocity on void fraction as a linear function. The outcome of the study could also be used to fully understand the phenomenon of void fraction in waxy crude based on varying the temperature and pressure.