Automated Volume Measurement, Adulteration Detection, and Tracking of Petroleum Products
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Date
2020
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Society of Petroleum Engineers
Abstract
The quantity of crude oil, petrol, diesel, or kerosene stored in storage tanks by the refineries, bulk oil terminals/depots, bulk consumers and petrol pumps is measured by taking the "dip" or height of the product in the tank. The process is manual, and open to theft, manipulation, and inaccurate reporting. Furthermore, petroleum products adulteration is another major challenge as there are no devices capable of detecting adulteration at point of sale (POS) terminals. A significant volume of petroleum products in Nigeria are being diverted and adulterated by corrupt officials to create artificial scarcity or smuggle to neighbouring countries to earn higher profits. The Petroleum Product Volume Estimator and Tracker (PPVET) is a portable electronic device that automatically measures the volume of a petroleum product contained with a receptacle, be it calibrated or uncalibrated. PPVET is also capable of detecting and identifying pure petroleum products, and tracking petroleum products during transportation. The Petroleum Product Volume Estimator and Tracker has been designed, built, and tested in Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria. The unit accurately measured 9 L of kerosene in a vertical cylinder with a measurement error of 2.2%. The system also demonstrated the ability to distinguish between pure crude oil, diesel, kerosene and petrol, based on their chemical signature data from gas vapor emissions. PPVET demonstrated the ability to track the transportation of a petroleum product along an authorized route, to detect when the product was being diverted outside the authorized route, and to alert the appropriate authorities on the diversion occurence and the GPS location of the diversion. Future work includes testing the system for automated volume measurement of underground storage tanks and petroleum product tankers, testing the PPVET's ability to detect adulterated petroleum products and to quantity the level of adulteration present in a given petroleum product, and testing the PPVET product tracking capability on a petroleum tanker transporting petroleum products across the country.
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Ejofodomi, O., & Ofualagba, G. (2020). Automated Volume Measurement, Adulteration Detection, and Tracking of Petroleum Products. SPE Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition. doi:10.2118/203694-ms