Froth Pipeline Water Content Estimation and Control

This paper presents a successful application of soft sensor based control for froth pipeline water content in oil sands industry. Water content is a key process quality variable for inter-site froth transportation through pipeline, which should be controlled within a specific range by adding hot processing water into the pipeline to maintain a reliable operating condition. A dynamic soft sensor incorporated with on-line bias update is developed to estimate the water content in real-time. Based on the soft sensor, a control strategy is consequently implemented to control the froth pipeline water content. Significant improvement of water content control is obtained from the successful application to a froth pipeline, which demonstrates the effectiveness, reliability and advantage of the soft sensor and control proposed.