IMAGEPro AFM BETA fundamentally changes how furnaces are operated, maintained, and optimised in the refinery and petrochemical industry by proving 24/7 temperature and visual monitoring, alarming, trending and archiving. The result is a furnace that runs more efficiently, with lower CO2 emissions, higher yields, and lower maintenance costs.
AMETEK Land’s radiometric industry leading thermal imaging borescope cameras (the NIR-B-640-EX, MWIR-B-640, and NIR-B-2K), installed in water or air-cooled jackets, are at the heart of the system.
Infrared cameras collect high resolution images and temperature data sent to IMAGEPro AFM BETA software, which can be installed on connected workstations. The software displays dashboards that summarise tube wall temperatures, burner tile/tip temperatures, refractory temperatures used for live background.
Furnace balance across multiple levels is visualised in real time via trend charts and colour coded thermal gradient ‘maps’ and every data point and image/frame can be alarmed, recorded.
AMETEK Land conducts a field of view (FoV) analysis to determine the optimal location for each camera. Our extensive experience with wide-angle optics means we know how to limit the number of cameras required. A small number of cameras can collect data from a large number of tubes, burners, and refractory areas of interest.
A Real time and historical analysis dashboard support data interrogation of tube, burner, and refractory temperatures across specified rows and levels. It displays data in this analysis screen from individual levels, so that useful comparisons can be made between tubes over time. This replicates the peep-door level Cyclops TMT monitoring practice but with continuously recorded data. The levels are specified per project so can be tuned to cover areas of maximum temperature or areas of concern.
IMPROVED YEILD, REDUCED EMISSIONS
Good furnace temperature uniformity improves efficiency and reduces CO2 emissions. Average tube wall temperatures can be reduced in hotter rows or increased in colder rows, reducing waste and risk of overheating/rupture.
RELIABILITY
Tubes, refractory, burner temperatures are monitored and alarmed. When temperature exceed fixed or ‘rate of change’ thresholds, operators use real time imagery and historical data to ensure temperatures stay within design limits without compromising load.
SAFETY
Operators are required to spend less time on the furnace recording temperatures manually. The software acts as an early warning system for potentially serious issues or incidents. This makes the system ideal for high temperature critical assets such as ethane/naphtha crackers and steam methane reformers.