Albert P. Richter

Nuclear Salt-in-Crude Monitor

The Arabian American Oil Co. (ARAMCO) recently installed a nuclear salt-in-crude monitor (SICM) that continuously measures the salt content of a flowing stream of crude oil. This device was developed by Texaco Inc.s Bellaire (TX) Research Laboratory. The monitor consists of two parts: a counting chamber and an instrument console. The counting chamber is a length of 24-in.-diameter pipe containing a long-life neutron source and a gamma ray detector, both mounted in cross pipes so that there is no direct contact with the flowing crude. Neutrons from the source are absorbed by chloride ions in the stream, which in turn emit gamma rays. The intensity of the gamma rays is proportional to the amount of chlorine in the crude. The gamma ray detector is electrically connected to the instrument console, which is located in a control room. The console contains the necessary instrumentation to process the data from the detector, to compute the salt concentration, and to provide a continuous printed record of the salt per thousand barrels (PTB).