"Green" Thinking Shapes Instrumentation Best Practices

“A green mindset will influence many of your instrumentation decisions.” ABB’s Dean Minhart examined how instrumentation choices affect such business outcomes as energy efficiency, environmental emissions and maintenance effectiveness.

Minehart noted that thinking green makes a difference in your choice of flowmeter too. He showed a chart of permanent pressure loss that indicated that a Venturi meter had significantly less energy loss than a conventional orifice plate meter. Minehart showed annual energy cost differentials for standard Venturis ($2,026/yr), a wedge meter ($8,917/yr), and orifice plate meters ($19,913/yr). “The payback on installing a ‘greener’ meter is nearly instantaneous,” Minehart said.

Valve positioners also can be designed with “green” in mind, Minehart said. ABB’s valve positioners’ maximum air consumption is 0.015 scfm, while Brand A is 0.817 scfm, Brand B is 0.35 scfm and Brand C is 0.20 scfm. That leads to a savings in energy cost of as much as $210,000 per valve positioner, depending on brand. “Green thinking works,” Minehart said.

Green product design can also reduce fugitive emissions. The new ABB differential pressure transmitter is designed with no flanges or gaskets and dual process isolation to minimize the chance of fugitive emissions, Minehart noted. Butt welding-process connections on wedge meters and Venturis, and ABB’s “compact orifice” design also are examples of green thinking.

Green thinking can also reduce asset footprint. The smaller size of ABB’s 364DS pressure transmitter means that many more can be located in the same panel or cabinet space than other, more conventional designs. This can be critical, especially in offshore or subsea applications. ABB’s swirl meter design can also reduce piping requirements because of its short straight-run requirements.

“Over 60% of instrument maintenance labor results in no action taken,” Minehart said, showing a well-known chart from Shell Global Solutions. “This is a waste of resources. Our predictive diagnostics can tell when an impulse line is getting plugged, or when a temperature sensor is beginning to fail, and give online valve performance indications.”

“Green instrumentation practices can have significant impact on your business objectives,” he concluded.