Industrial process imaging, or industrial process tomography or

process tomography Process tomography consists of tomographic imaging of systems, such as process pipes in industry. In tomography the 3D distribution of some physical quantity in the object is determined. There is a widespread need to get tomographic information ...

are methods used to form an image of a cross-section of vessel or pipe in a

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

or mineral processing, or petroleum extraction or refining plant. Process imaging is used for the development of process equipment such as filters, separators and conveyors, as well as monitoring of production plant including flow rate measurement. As well as conventional tomographic methods widely used in medicine such as

X-ray computed tomography An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 ...

magnetic resonance imaging Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio wave ...

and

gamma ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...

tomography, and ultra-sound tomography, new and emerging methods such as

electrical capacitance tomography Electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) is a method for determination of the dielectric permittivity distribution in the interior of an object from external capacitance measurements. It is a close relative of electrical impedance tomography and ...

and magnetic induction tomography and

electrical resistivity tomography Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) or electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) is a geophysical technique for imaging sub-surface structures from electrical resistivity measurements made at the surface, or by electrodes in one or more borehole ...

(similar to medical

electrical impedance tomography Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a noninvasive type of medical imaging in which the electrical conductivity, permittivity, and impedance of a part of the body is inferred from surface electrode measurements and used to form a tomographic ...

) are also used. Although such techniques are not in widespread deployment in industrial plant there is an active research community, including a Virtual Center for industrial Process Tomography, and a regular World Congress on Industrial Process Tomography, now organized by a learned society for this area, the ''International Society for Industrial Process Tomography'' A number of applications of tomography of process equipment were described in the 1970s, using Ionising Radiation from X-ray or isotope sources but routine use was limited by the high cost involved and safety constraints. Radiation-based methods used long exposure times which meant that dynamic measurements of the real-time behaviour of process systems were not feasible. The use of electrical methods to image industrial processes was pioneered by Maurice Beck at the

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

in the mid-1980s Roger Waterfall, Maurice Sidney Beck M Inst P (1929-1999), November 1999, {{cite web , url=http://www.tomography.manchester.ac.uk/beck.shtml , title=Industrial Process Tomography at the University of Manchester , accessdate=2007-10-06 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071031230631/http://www.tomography.manchester.ac.uk/beck.shtml , archivedate=2007-10-31 .

References

Chemical process engineering

See also

References