Remote - Fall 2015 - (Page 29)

Enclosures Remote Instrumentation Shelter is Passively-Cooled Passively-cooled shelters from Intertec can be used to protect remote instrumentation points on pipelines. These shelters are constructed using advanced glass reinforced polyester (GRP) sheeting - sandwiching thick insulating foam. GRP is inherently inert and virtually immune to the corrosive effects of salt and aggressive chemicals, making it suitable for the harshest of environments. One recent Middle East project from Intertec sees such a shelter in a coastal location (with high UV levels and temperatures, salt and chlorine, as well as sulfur from the pipeline's natural gas media). Even though the shelter has a volume of 142m3, cooling is entirely passive. Cooling works by thermosiphoning water, which is cooled and heated by the natural swing of day/night temperatures. A thermally-stratified tank is connected to two closed-loop thermo-siphon systems with internal wall-mounted and external roof-mounted heat exchangers. Water circulates by natural convection and shaves 20°C off peak daytime temperature. Semi-passive cooling technologies allow such shelters to operate in almost any environment. In total, Intertec supplied three shelters for this project. Two employ active cooling, the third houses solar-powered instrumentation and uses innovative passive cooling technology. The shelters protect SCADA systems for the control infrastructure of a gas pipeline on the coast of the Persian Gulf. Before this project, much of the gas from oilfields was burnt off as waste at the point of extraction. This project improves resource management by collecting and using the gas to power seawater desalination plants that are currently fuelled by oil. Environmental conditions at the site are severe. The coastal location means that the atmosphere contains corrosive salt and chlorine, as well as sulfur from the natural gas. During the summer, additional factors include high levels of UV radiation and temperatures that reach 55°C in the shade. Intertec constructed all three shelters using the techniques and composite materials that it uses for its high performance ARCTIC range. In this instance, 85 mm thick walls are employed - with 4 mm inner and outer skins of GRP sheeting sandwiching a 77 mm layer of insulating foam. The GRP material layers are inherently inert and virtually immune to the corrosive effects of salt and aggressive chemicals. Intertec was able to manufacture the GRP in large panels without introducing any metal components that could create thermal short-cuts and degrade insulation efficiency. All external surfaces are protected by a thick layer of UV-resistant gel-coat. Two of the instrumentation shelters that Intertec built are sited near to the electricity grid and were able to use active cooling. Each of these shelters is equipped with a custom 3 kW air conditioning system. A special corrosion-resistant external heat exchanger was developed for the application. Another major design challenge involved creating a cooling system based on a CFC-free refrigerant such as R-134A that could work efficiently in very high temperatures. For the more remote third shelter, connection to an electricity grid was not possible. Here, all instrumentation power is derived from inverters, fed by batteries that are recharged by a photovoltaic generator. This system's strict power budget means that even though the shelter has a very large volume of 142 cubic meters, its cooling system had to be entirely passive. This shelter has two adjacent walk-in rooms with their own entry doors. One room houses the rechargeable batteries, while the second houses all the system instrumentation and electronics including a PLC, computer network, power inverters and a controller for the external photovoltaic generator. The entire roof area is covered by a heat exchanger and sunshade combination. The passive cooling system is designed to accommodate the maximum power dissipation of all equipment in the shelter, amounting to 1,080 W under worst-case conditions, which is when the hottest day of the year follows the hottest night. Under these demanding conditions, the cooling system ensures that the shelter's internal air temperature never exceeds 35°C. Register for the 2015 Fuel Cell Seminar Fuel Cells Power Remote and Rural Areas! Come Find out More! 2015 FUEL CELL SEMINAR & ENERGY EXPOSITION November 16 - 19, 2015 Westin Bonaventure Hotel Los Angeles, California Find us online at www.fuelcellseminar.com Remote Site & Equipment Management \ Fall 2015 29 http://www.fuelcellseminar.com http://www.fuelcellseminar.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - Fall 2015

Editor's Choice
Industrial Internet Solutions Improve Operational Efficiency for Fleet Operators
Driving Down Your Costs with Wireless Automation
Create a Better Remote HMI Mobile User Experience
Site Knowledge + Predictive Analytics = Maximum Availability and Business Continuity
How Can Remote Applications Grow with the Internet of Things?
IoT Can Change How Remote Sites and Assets Are Managed, But Only if Devices are Secure
Remote Monitoring and Predictive Diagnostics of Remote Power Systems
CCVT for Reliable Remote Applications
SCADA
Networking
Security
Onsite Power
Enclosures
Industry News

Remote - Fall 2015