What does a Tracerco leak test do?
Tracerco has a long history of performing online and offline heat exchanger leak testing using chemicals, radioisotopes and helium tracers. A Tracerco Diagnostics™ Leak study provides real-time data on the exchanger, and eliminates the need for the equipment to be offline or the unit to be shutdown while searching for the leak. It also reduces maintenance costs, as it identifies the individual leaking exchanger in a ‘bank’ or group of exchangers, avoiding the need to perform unnecessary maintenance on multiple units.
What type of tracer materials are injected into the process system?
Tracerco experts will work with a customer to select a suitable tracer material for the leak test based on a series of process questions:
• How many exchangers?
• How small could the leak be?
• Are there injection and sample points downstream of the vessels?
• What are the phases and compositions of the streams?
• What are the temperatures, pressures and flow rates of the streams?
Radioisotope tracers used can either be gas or liquid phase. A very small volume of tracer – typically about 30 to 50 ml – is injected into the system. Radioisotope tracers typically have very short half-lives. The minimum detectable leak size with external detectors is usually around ~0.5%. Leaks as small as 100 ppm (0.01%) can be found with radioisotope tracers using a sampling technique. Tracerco offers a range of proprietary chemical tracers. They are non-hazardous, non-flammable, and very stable. The volume of tracer typically injected is 100 ml to 1000 ml. The tracers chosen will closely mimic the characteristics of the process being studied. Samples of the process fluid are collected and analysed at a Tracerco laboratory. The minimum leak size measurable with this technique detects leaks as small as 10 ppb.
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