Carbonate scale detector
First Claim
1. An apparatus to detect scale formation in a fluid stream, said apparatus comprising:
- a flow-through chamber for the fluid stream;
at least two optical windows comprising an electrically conductive coating, at least one of said optical windows functioning as a cathode and accumulating scale formation from the fluid stream;
an energy emitting device transmitting an energy beam through both said optical windows and the fluid stream; and
an energy receiving device for measuring an intensity of said energy beam; and
a processor for correlating said intensity with an amount of said scale formation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for detecting carbonate scale. An energy emitting device transmits energy through one optical window, through a fluid stream, and out through a second optical window where the energy is detected by an energy receiving device. As scale, such as that due to carbonate present in the fluid, accumulates on the wetted surface of the optical windows, the transmission of the energy through the optical windows is obscured. The optical windows may optionally be coated and electrically charged to promote the formation of carbonate scale on the wetted surface of the window. The optical windows can be cleaned by reversing their polarity. By correlating the rate of energy intensity reduction to carbonate scale formation, the concentration of carbonate in the fluid stream can be determined. The carbonate detector can be used to alarm, shutdown, or control operation of equipment that may be adversely affected by the presence of carbonate in the fluid stream.
21 Citations
50 Claims
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1. An apparatus to detect scale formation in a fluid stream, said apparatus comprising:
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a flow-through chamber for the fluid stream; at least two optical windows comprising an electrically conductive coating, at least one of said optical windows functioning as a cathode and accumulating scale formation from the fluid stream; an energy emitting device transmitting an energy beam through both said optical windows and the fluid stream; and an energy receiving device for measuring an intensity of said energy beam; and a processor for correlating said intensity with an amount of said scale formation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method for detecting scale formation, the method comprising the steps of:
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shining an energy beam through a first optical window, through a fluid stream, and through a second optical window, the windows comprising an electrically conductive coating and at least one window functioning as a cathode; detecting an intensity of the energy beam; and correlating the intensity with an amount of scale formation on at least one of the optical windows, thereby measuring the amount of scale formation. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification