Emerson has added non-intrusive wireless corrosion monitoring to its Pervasive Sensing strategies portfolio, continuing its strategy to invest in its core business platforms and expand in markets that hold significant long-term growth opportunity.
On Oct. 3, 2016, Emerson announced it had agreed to acquire U.K.-based Permasense Ltd., a leading provider of non-intrusive corrosion monitoring technologies for the offshore and onshore oil production, refining, chemical, power, pipelines, metals and mining and other industries. Permasense monitoring systems use non-intrusive ultrasonic wall thickness measurement sensor technology, wireless data delivery and advanced analytics to continuously monitor for metal loss from corrosion or erosion in pipes, pipelines or vessels.
[sidebar id =1]“Corrosion and erosion can significantly impact the safe and reliable operation of our industrial customers’ infrastructure, which can have dire consequences,” said Mike Train, president, Emerson Automation Solutions. “Wireless non-intrusive corrosion monitoring is a transformational shift that helps customers immediately understand the health and integrity of their infrastructure in real-time and enable them to fully optimize their operations while maximizing safety.” For example, with the increasing variability in types of crude oil coming into many refineries today, unpredicted corrosion is becoming a significant issue that affects both uptime and profitability. “Now, refinery infrastructure can be monitored and controlled using this non-intrusive technology,” Train said.
The Permasense product line will become part of Emerson’s Rosemount portfolio of measurement and analytical technologies. Permasense technologies complement Emerson’s Roxar intrusive corrosion monitoring and non-intrusive sand management systems, and strengthen the company’s Pervasive Sensing applications. With Permasense and Roxar technologies in its portfolio, Emerson will be the largest provider of integrity and corrosion management solutions in the marketplace.
Central to Permasense corrosion monitoring systems are sensors that employ proven ultrasonic wall thickness measurement principles. The sensors are battery powered and communicate wirelessly, eliminating the cable, minimizing the cost of installation, and enabling use in remote areas and on a large scale with thousands of sensors. The sensors’ low-power consumption enables deployment in Zone 0-rated, intrinsically safe areas of the plant.
A browser-based data analysis and visualization software, DataManager, enables the wall thickness data to be accessed anywhere in the world via an Internet connection, facilitating automated collection and management of integrity data from the most remote, even unmanned, facilities.
