Business and Finance

ITS LAUNCHES DENS-ITOMETER FOR SLURRY MONITORING

September 25, 2015 By International Dredging Review

Industrial Tomography Systems (ITS) has developed the DENS-ITOMETER to monitor slurry flows within a pipeline. ITS said the technology offers a greener and more cost effective alternative to conventional nuclearbased systems.

Supplied as a pipe-based sensor the Dens-Itometer monitors slurry flow across an entire cross section and provides accurate real-time data on the density profiles of moving solids during dredging. Its patented measurement technology uses electrical conductivity – rather than gamma radiation – to take these essential readings. ITS said the system can also remove the significant costs associated with regulatory compliance nuclear waste disposal and specialist operators.

Electrical process tomography works by lining the periphery of a pipe with an array of electrodes and then injecting a tiny current into pairs of these electrodes. Material within the pipe will have different electrical properties which will affect how the current propagates the pipe. ITS software then uses complex algorithms to create a conductivity map (or ‘tomogram’) that represents a cross sectional slice through the pipe.

Ken Primrose CEO of ITS explained “ITS is the only company in the world to have commercialized electrical resistance tomography for high conductivity systems. We’ve achieved this by developing a patented high conductivity adapter specifically for use with seawater-based systems.” He also said the system can be deployed on-board vessels.

With an adaptable design the Dens-Itometer can inspect 100 percent of flows no matter what the orientation of the pipe as gamma systems are often inaccurate when used to measure horizontal flows.

The Dense-Itometer launched in early 2015 and has already been installed on major dredging and mining projects by ITS’ European partner Van Oord. The system is able to handle extremely demanding field requirements including: pipes with diameters of up to 1.2 meters (3.94 feet) heavy rocks as well as fine grain and flows of up to 30000 tons per hour.