A nuclear salt-in-crude monitor

A nuclear salt-in-crude monitor has been developed which continuously measures the salt content of a flowing stream of crude oil. The system has the capability of continuously monitoring salt content (chlorine) in small quantities with good accuracy, 10 PTB (pounds per thousand) ±2 PTB (approximately 20±4 p.p.m. chlorine). Sulfur content of less than 1% by weight and greater can also be monitored. The monitor consists of a counting chamber and an instrument console. The counting chamber is a length of 24-inch diameter pipe containing a long-life neutron source and a gamma-ray detector, both of which are mounted in cross pipes so that there is no direct contact with the flowing crude. Neutrons from the source are absorbed by chloride ions in the stream, and in turn emit gamma rays of intensity proportional to the amount of chloride in the crude. The gamma-ray detector is electrically connected to an instrument console that contains the necessary instrumentation to process the data from the detector, compute the salt concentration, and provide a continuous printed record of the salt concentration in PTB