Filtration in the Oil and Gas Industry can cover a wide range of applications. There are filtration systems for pipeline flow, dehydration systems, wellhead filters, process filters, large volume filters and small volume knock out filters. There are various applications and thus there are many manufacturers that supply filtration in one form or another to the Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Industrial Industries.
One of the critical areas for filtration in the industry is in the area of instrumentation. Many of the instruments that control processes or equipment use either instrument air or the natural gas itself, to power the instrument. It is therefore very important that the gas be clean and dry in order to provide an uninterrupted supply for instrumentation. Dirty air or wet gas will clog many of the pneumatic controllers equipped with scratch valves and wet air or gas will freeze in the cold winter months. Either of these cases will cause shutdowns or interruptions in service and can become nightmares for operations personnel that are trying to keep services up and running.
Filtration for the instrumentation part of the industry can be simple or complex in nature. Most filters or filter systems for instrumentation are designed with ¼ inch NPT or ½ inch NPT connections. They are small volume sizes with low to moderate flow rates (2 scfm to 80 scfm). Since most of them will be used on natural gas systems, they are normally rated for 1440 psi working pressure (ANSI 600), but some may be rated to lower working pressures and some special units may be rated as high as 5,000 or 10,000 psi. They are equipped with an inlet and outlet port and a drain port.
Listed here are several variations of filtration equipment that can be found in use today.
The gas sample enters the housing and flows through the Membrane, effectively eliminating any free liquids from entering the analyzer columns. Mounted horizontally, liquid droplets or slugs drop off of the membrane and drain out through the bottom valve.
Analyzer Liquid Shutoff from Welker Engineering, prevents liquid of any kind from entering gas chromatographs, keeping analyzer columns safe from damage.
This brief overview of instrument filtration will help make the buyer and designer aware that there products available and manufacturers with the experience and expertise to meet the needs of the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Industry when it comes to Instrument Supply Filtration Systems.
Welker Engineering Company is a designer and manufacturer of this type filtration, with over 40 years of experience and a worldwide reputation for innovative filtration equipment and solutions.