Technical Reports SeriEs No. 423 Radiotracer Applications in Industry — A Guidebook RADIOTRACER APPLICATIONS IN INDUSTRY — A GUIDEBOOK The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GUATEMALA PERU ALBANIA HAITI PHILIPPINES ALGERIA HOLY SEE POLAND ANGOLA HONDURAS PORTUGAL ARGENTINA HUNGARY QATAR ARMENIA ICELAND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA AUSTRALIA INDIA ROMANIA AUSTRIA INDONESIA AZERBAIJAN IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION BANGLADESH IRAQ SAUDI ARABIA BELARUS IRELAND SENEGAL BELGIUM ISRAEL SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BENIN ITALY SEYCHELLES BOLIVIA JAMAICA SIERRA LEONE BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JAPAN SINGAPORE BOTSWANA JORDAN SLOVAKIA BRAZIL KAZAKHSTAN SLOVENIA BULGARIA KENYA SOUTH AFRICA BURKINA FASO KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SPAIN CAMEROON KUWAIT CANADA KYRGYZSTAN SRI LANKA CENTRAL AFRICAN LATVIA SUDAN REPUBLIC LEBANON SWEDEN CHILE LIBERIA SWITZERLAND CHINA LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COLOMBIA LIECHTENSTEIN TAJIKISTAN COSTA RICA LITHUANIA THAILAND CÔTE D’IVOIRE LUXEMBOURG THE FORMER YUGOSLAV CROATIA MADAGASCAR REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CUBA MALAYSIA TUNISIA CYPRUS MALI TURKEY CZECH REPUBLIC MALTA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MARSHALL ISLANDS UGANDA OF THE CONGO MAURITIUS UKRAINE DENMARK MEXICO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MONACO UNITED KINGDOM OF ECUADOR MONGOLIA GREAT BRITAIN AND EGYPT MOROCCO NORTHERN IRELAND EL SALVADOR MYANMAR UNITED REPUBLIC ERITREA NAMIBIA OF TANZANIA ESTONIA NETHERLANDS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ETHIOPIA NEW ZEALAND URUGUAY FINLAND NICARAGUA UZBEKISTAN FRANCE NIGER GABON NIGERIA VENEZUELA GEORGIA NORWAY VIETNAM GERMANY PAKISTAN YEMEN GHANA PANAMA ZAMBIA GREECE PARAGUAY ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. © IAEA, 2004 Permission to reproduce or translate the information contained in this publication may be obtained by writing to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Wagramer Strasse 5, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria. Printed by the IAEA in Austria June 2004 STI/DOC/010/423 SAFETY REPORTS SERIES No. 423 RADIOTRACER APPLICATIONS IN INDUSTRY — A GUIDEBOOK INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2004 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Radiotracer applications in industry : a guidebook. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2004. p. ; 24 cm. — (Technical reports series, ISSN 0074–1914 ; no. 423) STI/DOC/010/423 ISBN 92–0–114503–9 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Radioactive tracers. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. Technical reports series (International Atomic Energy Agency) ; 423. IAEAL 04–00364 FOREWORD Radioactive tracers were first applied to industrial problem solving around the middle of the last century. Since then their use has increased steadily so that, at the time of writing, radiotracer techniques are used extensively throughout the world for troubleshooting and process optimization in industry. The economic benefits that may be derived from the use of this technology are great, a fact that is recognized by the governments of developing countries. Among the Member States of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nearly fifty developing countries have radiotracer applications groups. The IAEA plays a major role in facilitating the transfer of the technology, and an important part of this process is the provision of relevant literature that may be used for reference purposes or as an aid to teaching. In this respect, over the past decade, the IAEA has distributed widely throughout the developing world the Guidebook on Radioisotope Tracers in Industry, Technical Reports Series No. 316 (1990). This guidebook is still in common use for reference and as a teaching aid, since much of the information it contains has retained its value and relevance. However, in the fifteen years or so since that guidebook was conceived, many important technological developments have taken place, resulting in a perceived need at present for a modern guidebook that covers both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the industrial applications of radiotracers. This new guidebook aims to fill the gap by providing not only an extensive description of what can be achieved by the application of radiotracer techniques but also sound, experience based, guidance on all aspects of the design, implementation and interpretation of the results of industrial applications. It describes the principles and the state of the art of radiotracer methodology and technology as applied to oil and geothermal reservoirs and industrial processing. This guidebook has been prepared with contributions from outstanding specialists from around the world. Also included are the major achievements of the IAEA Co-ordinated Research Project (CRP) on Radiotracer Technology for Engineering Unit Operation Studies and Unit Process Optimization, and the CRP on Integration of Residence Time Distribution (RTD) Tracing with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulation for Industrial Process Visualization and Optimization. Novel developments in radiotracer methodology and technology are reflected as well. The guidebook covers for the first time the methodology of radiotracers for all kinds of industrial applications. Although written primarily for the radioisotope practitioner, this new guidebook is also intended to promote the benefits of the technology to governments, the general public and industrial end users. The IAEA wishes to thank the CRP participants and all the contributors for their co-operation. The IAEA officers responsible for this publication were J. Thereska and Z. Pang of the Division of Physical and Chemical Sciences. EDITORIAL NOTE Although great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of information contained in this publication, neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from its use. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed as an endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 2. RADIATION SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS . 3 2.1. National regulations and authorization of practices . 4 2.2. Occupational and public protection . 5 2.3. Emergency planning . 7 2.4. Record keeping . 7 3. METHODOLOGY . 7 3.1. Introduction . 7 3.2. Selection and optimization of the radioactive tracer . 15 3.2.1. Radioactive tracer characteristics . 15 3.2.2. Potential radiotracers for typical applications . 16 3.2.3. Estimation of radiotracer amount . 17 3.3. Injection . 22 3.3.1. Methodology: Good mixing length estimation . 22 3.3.2. Examples of injectors . 29 3.4. Radiation detection and measurement in a tracer test configuration . 31 3.4.1. Influence of the test configuration . 31 3.4.2. Example 1: A radiotracer experiment in pipe flow . 33 3.4.3. Example 2: A radiotracer experiment in the industrial case . 43 3.4.4. Detector positioning and protection . 51 3.4.5. Data acquisition . 54 3.5. Data treatment and filtering . 55 3.5.1. Basic principles and tools . 55 3.5.2. Application to selected examples . 57 3.6. Data analysis and modelling . 75 3.6.1. Convolution and deconvolution procedures . 75 3.6.2. Time analysis and moment extraction . 93 3.6.3. Axial dispersed plug flow . 95 3.6.4. Decomposition into elementary flows . 97 3.6.5. RTD system analysis . 109 3.6.6. RDT analysis and computational fluid dynamics modelling . 120 4. CASE STUDIES . 122 4.1. Case study No. 1: Dispersion in a packed column . 122 4.1.1. Introduction . 122 4.1.2. Experimental design . 123 4.1.3. Data processing methodology . 127 4.1.4. Results and discussion . 130 4.2. Case study No. 2: Room ventilation . 139 4.2.1. Introduction . 139 4.2.2. Experimental design . 140 4.2.3. RTD analysis and CFD modelling . 143 4.2.4. Zonal modelling . 144 4.2.5. Conclusions . 147 4.3. Case study No. 3: Polluted stream waste treatment plant efficiency using radiotracer techniques . 148 4.3.1. Introduction . 148 4.3.2. Experimental design . 149 4.3.3. Preliminary treatment of experimental data . 151 4.3.4. Calculation of dead volume . 151 4.3.5. Modelling of tracer data . 152 4.3.6. Investigation of the different units of the wastewater treatment plant . 152 4.3.7. Summary . 157 5. PERSPECTIVES — INDUSTRIAL PROCESS TOMOGRAPHY 158 5.1. Detection chain modelling . 158 5.2. Tracer flow imaging . 162 5.2.1. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) . 162 5.2.2. Gamma ray cameras . 164 6. TRACERS IN OILFIELDS AND GEOTHERMAL RESERVOIRS . 165 6.1. Radiotracer technology as applied to interwell communication in oilfields . 166 6.1.1. Introduction . 166 6.1.2. Methodology . 169 6.1.3. Selection and optimization of radioactive tracer . 171 6.1.4. Injection . 192 6.1.5. Radiation detection and measurement . 196 6.1.6. Data analysis and modelling . 204 6.1.7. Case studies . 210 6.2. Radioactive tracer techniques in geothermal reservoirs . 218 6.2.1. Introduction . 218 6.2.2.