RADIOTRACER

MEASUREMENTS

TECHNIQUE IN KENYA

KENYA BUREAU OF STANDARDS

Collins Omondi

cyallar@kebs.org

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLICATIONS OF RADIATION SCIENCE

AND TECHNOLOGY, 24TH – 28TH APRIL , 2017

KENYA BUREAU OF STANDARDS

KEBS MANDATE :

• Promotion of Standards development

• Provision of testing and calibration services

• Quality Assurance

• Import inspection

• Certification

• Pre-Export verification of Conformity to Standards

VISION : To be a global leader in standards

based solutions that deliver quality

and confidence.

METROLOGY

METROLOGY LABORATORIES

Mass laboratory

Time and Frequency Lab.

Industrial measurements Lab.

AC/DC Lab.

Pressure Lab.

Mandate :

1. To develop and maintain national standards

2. To provide measurement traceability

3. To disseminate the SI unit through calibrations

Density & Viscosity

Temperature Lab.

Force Lab.

Radiation Dosimetry Lab.

Volume Lab

IMPORTANCE OF MEASUREMENT

1. Fair trading

2. Consumer protection and confidence

3. Health and safety

4. Environmental monitoring

5. Demonstration of compliance to specifications by

manufacturers

KEN 6/06 - SECONDARY STANDARD DOSIMETRY LABORATORY

(SSDL) , X-RAY & Cs-17 CALIBRATION LABORATORY

OBJECTIVE :

1. To develop radiation dosimetry unit of measurements (Reference).

2. To disseminate radiation dosimetry unit (calibration).

Calibration :

1. Radiation protection equipment

2. Diagnostic equipment

Cs-137 emits gamma rays, 647 GBq

Half-life of 30 years

EQUIPMENT CALIBRATED

5

RADIOTRACER LABORATORY 2

RAF 8/040 - Radioisotope applications for troubleshooting and

optimizing industrial process

General Objective:

To introduce and implement radiotracer technique for

problem solving of industrial challenges

Specific objectives:

1 To develop the national capability for application of radiotracer

technique through training, expert missions and fellowship

2 To upgrade radiotracer infrastructure / equipment

3 To promote wider use of the radiotracer application for solving

industrial problems and to facilitate its use by the industrial end-user

4 To improve human resource capacity to solve industrial and

environmental problems for different fields

RADIOTRACER CAPACITY BUILDING

21-25 March 2012 27-28 October 2015

FLOW RIG EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Flow rig experimental setup for

1. Dead/stagnant volume

2. Bypassing / channelling

3. Mixing

4. Troubleshooting

5. Efficiency

6. Measurement of the residence

time distribution (RTD).

Input Output

DAS

Flow meters

Co

lum

n w

ith

4 m

ixer

s in

ser

ies Scintillation Detector

Ion exchange

COMPARISON OF FLOW RATE MEASUREMENT

USING RADIOTRACER AND WATER METER

Water meter Injection

point

Detector 2 Detector 1

Water flow

1

FLOW RATE MEASUREMENT USING WATER METER

Water Meter Measurement Volume ΔV

ΔV = VFINAL READING - VINITIAL READING

Flow rate = Volume/ time

Meter size …1/2 Inch ……… Instrument: Water meter…….

Manufacturer …MELBON ... S/No …06A203001….

RESULTS FOR THE WATER METER

NO

METER UNDER TEST READING LITRES (M.U.T) STANDARD

VOLUME IN

LITRES

(C.V)

TIME

SEC

IN

m3/h

%

ERROR

INITIAL FINAL DIFFERENCE

IN LITRES

1 7198 9205 200.7 198 2350 0.307 -1.36

2 9209 11220 201.1 199 2345 0.309 -1.06

3 11223 13221 199.8 198 2341 0.307 -0.91

4 13361 15365 200.4 201 2360 0.306 0.30

FLOW RATE MEASUREMENT USING RADIOTRACER

Method:

Peak-to-peak flow rate measurement

Procedure :

Injecting a pulse tracer and monitoring the passage of tracer at two

detection points

Average linear velocity u = { Δ x } = { Distance }

Δt time

Volumetric flow Q = u = a . Δ x

a Δt

where a = Cross-sectional area

Injection Detector 1 Detector 2 Flow meter

3m

RADIOTRACER MEASUREMENT PROCESS

Problem description

Radiotracer experiment carried out in a straight pipe that is used for

calibration of flow meters at KEBS.

Parameters specifications :

• Pipe length around 3 m and internal diameter 26.7 cm

• The fluid was water at ambient temperature

• Pressure 2-3 bar

Radiotracer :

Gamma-emitting Tc-99m (2 mCi) injected by a syringe at a location of

the pipe, around 1 m before the first detector, and monitored by two

detectors separated by 114.5cm:

RADIOTRACER RESULTS

EVALUATION OF RESULTS

Parameters Classical

volumetric

technique

Radiotracer

transit

time technique

Flow rate,

liters/hour

351 307

Accuracy ± 12.3 %

KENGEN GEOTHERMAL FIELD , KENYA 2

• Kenya leads Africa and 8th in the world in generation of geothermal power

power production

• We have 4 companies producing a total of 544 MW

• Kengen company drilled over 250 production wells and over 50 re-injection wells

GEOTHERMAL CHALLENGES :

• Inadequate monitoring

• Inadequate information

• Re-injection

• Over exploitation

• Utilization of same resource

• Lack of reliable modelling

PROPOSED INTERWELL TRACER TECHNOLOGY

1. To optimize production and re-injection program

2. Provide evidence of interwell connections

3. Identify injection returns

4. Calibrate 2 phase flow meters

CEMENT PRODUCTION, PORTLAND 3 • Kenya cement production is about 5.88 million tones per year

• 13 cement production companies

Opportunity for RTD curve and its model :

• optimize the performance of the clinker grinding system

• measure the grinding efficiency

• measure holdup or dead stock

• measure re-circulation of the mill

• obtain information and parameters for diagnosing the dynamics of

material in the clinker grinding system

CONCLUSION

Radiotracer has potential to

play an important role for better management

of Kenya natural resources, industrial growth

and environmental preservation.

THANK YOU

FOR YOUR ATTENTION !