DETECTRONIC DEMONSTRATES ITS MONITORING VERSATILITY

Introduction

Earlier this year, an oil and gas exploration company approached Detectronic with a view to specifying and installing a bespoke monitoring solution.

The company is in the process of carrying out detailed exploration work at a site in the north west of England. In order to understand the hydrology of the site and how it might affect future development plans, Detectronic were consequently appointed to design, implement and maintain permanent flow and level monitoring.

Objective

• To measure peak flow requirements

Planning & implementation

Following several site visits, we installed two separate pieces of equipment. We selected our MSFM MCERTS ultrasonic flow meter to gather data on surface water discharge from a pipe and our MSFM Lite level monitor to analyse the level of the stream that surface water from the pipe drains into.

The primary objective was to measure peak flow requirements as there is a strict limit to the amount of surface water that can be discharged through the pipe if the stream is above a certain level. If there is too much surface water, the level will rise above the specified limit and the surface water will need to be buffered elsewhere.

To accommodate the various requirements demanded by the sensor head on each of the monitors, our site team helped to design a large section of purpose-built pipework that was located above ground. They also built a tailored framework to which they attached the MSFM Lite monitor to ensure it could be located in the optimum position.

We had to overcome several landownership limitations with one farmer happy for us to access the land and another refusing! As a result, the tailored framework we created for the MSFM Lite had to be anchored directly on only one side of the bank and in the stream, a task that not many other companies would or could attempt.

Results

The system we have created is functioning very well and delivering robust data that will inform the future development of the site. A recent site visit by an MCERTS Inspector, saw the installation pass the external verification, proving just how reliable and accurate the MSFM MCERTS Ultrasonic Flow Meter is.