Level measurement in a process hopper with fly ash

The Challenge

In South Carolina, a coal power plant needed continuous level on their fly ash hoppers. Fly Ash is a byproduct of pulverized coal and has been proven to be hazardous for the environment. Coal power plants are typically regulated to collect this material for disposal or reuse. Accurate level measurement is imperative in this application to prevent overfill, which could result in safety concerns, clean up cost, and/or hefty fines. The onsite conditions required the sensor to be installed laterally.

Our Solution

Typically, through air radar, like the NivoRadar® 3000 or NivoRadar® 4000 would be suitable for the task. However, these particular hoppers did not have room at the top of the vessel to mount such devices. It was required to mount horizontally from the side of the vessel. UWT proposed the NivoGuide 3000 series guided wave radar for this challenging application. Normally, guided wave radar is mounted vertically, with a rope or rod running the length of the vessel. By using a 90° elbow shaft, it was determined that the customer could truly “guide” the radar pulse in from a horizontally mounted head unit. Today, there are 12 hoppers successfully running with this solution.

Our Product