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To be successful in today's safety-conscious and efficiency-minded marketplace, companies must combine compelling new technologies to offer the most convenient and effective business services and solutions. For monitoring remote tank sites, that means combining the intelligence of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) communication with the risk mitigation properties of intrinsic safety.
Introduction
Labor costs are constantly increasing. Fuel storage regulations are tightening. Fuel costs are high and uncertain. Executives want better data, more often. At the same time, they're demanding reduced operational costs without sacrificing personnel safety.
Successful companies don't fight new demands. They don't even react. They see beyond the immediate and design new processes, find technologies that facilitate their processes, and combine these to improve productivity and enable long term success.
Across multiple industries, through large and small companies, the process of maintaining and replenishing fuel continues to be rife with inefficiency. Sturdy shoes and a pencil are often critical tools of the data collection manager, as well as a good spreadsheet program and a fax machine. This is not to imply that we live in technological caves. Many efficiencies have already been implemented: automated gauges, inventory tracking software, vendor managed inventory--these and other advances have greatly reduced fuel maintenance costs. Yet, there is still much room for improvement.
New, intrinsically safe gauges automatically collect and wirelessly transfer data. GPRS is now built into collection systems, enabling data to be uploaded automatically from remote sites. Solar panels can eliminate the need for a wired power source. Combining advanced devices such as these with improved information systems that aggregate and analyze the data facilitates rapid decisions and better plans.
Automated Fuel Management
Automated fuel management reduces long term operating costs, particularly for large companies with centralized purchasing and/or logistics management. It not only reduces fuel inventory carrying costs, but also enables better, faster decisions based on more current and more accurate data. Therefore, it is no surprise that most companies for whom fuel is a high percentage of costs already have some sort of an automated system in place. However, the effectiveness varies.
Generally, an end-to-end fuel management business process can be divided into four segments: (1) data collection (measuring the fuel levels and transmitting the data to a central repository); (2) data aggregation (gathering and organizing the data for strategic use); (3) data analysis; and (4) execution (using the results of the analysis to improve fuel management performance.) This paper will not delve into the software debate but will focus only on the segment that actually touches the fuel.
The primary pieces, or costs, associated with the data collection segment of a fuel management system include the following: - Hardware: Measuring and data transmission devices (intrinsically safe where required) - Installation: Wiring, trenching (if necessary), testing and training. - Measuring / data collection: The cost of labor and/or expenses such as drive time, measurement and data transmission - Maintenance: Periodic verification of the system, battery replacement, downtime, and periodic hardware maintenance.
Intrinsic Safety -- The Bare Minimum
Clearly, any device that functions in and around flammable chemicals, dust or vapor should not explode upon contact with the volatile substance. But "should not explode" won't appear on any equipment. More likely there will be a stamp or engraving of a UL or MET code certifying that the products are intrinsically safe (translated: will not explode.)
Intrinsic safety (IS) approvals are standardized requirements put in place to protect the end user from risk of catastrophe associated with flammable gas, vapor and/or dust being ignited by devices. The IS device must be incapable of igniting flammable chemicals, in any state, during normal use, abnormal use and in fault conditions. It must be incapable of igniting materials at the most combustible concentration of the flammable gas, vapor and dust to be considered intrinsically safe in Class I/Division I areas.
A certified intrinsically safe device has not only been designed and built to be safe in hazardous environments, but it has been tested by an independent approval body, such as Underwriters Laboratories or MET Laboratories, in order to verify the manufacturer's safety claims. The process is arduous.
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