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Application of Qiteng Intelligent Inspection Robots in the Synthetic Ammonia Industry Author/Source: Date: 2022-11-15 Clicks: 48 In the modern chemical industry, synthetic ammonia is a chemical product that is produced in large quantities. In the future, the market concentration in China’s synthetic ammonia industry will increase further; leading companies will enhance their operational capabilities, while production facilities will be upgraded to be larger in scale, more energy-efficient, and capable of cleaner production. Therefore, vigorously developing ammonia synthesis technology at this stage to improve its production efficiency is an important measure for the development of industrial civilization today. Ammonia synthesis plants are mainly divided into key areas such as the desulfurization section, purification section, compression section, and synthesis section. In the past, manual inspections were carried out using traditional methods, relying on hearing, touching, and smelling, as well as experience to avoid risks. As per the regulations, equipment inspections must be carried out every two hours. Inspection workers have to travel back and forth among numerous pieces of equipment more than a dozen times a day, resulting in a thick stack of record sheets filled out with pen and paper. The inspection work in the synthetic ammonia industry faces challenges such as a high level of risk, slow manual inspections, and high costs associated with them. The materials used in production are flammable, explosive, toxic, and harmful; in the event of a liquid ammonia leak, it can even lead to widespread poisoning of people. Inspection personnel who are exposed to such an environment for extended periods may also face hazards such as noise pollution and burns from corrosive liquids. In addition to environmental hazards, the manual inspection system is also becoming increasingly unsuitable for today’s high-risk industries. The manual efficiency is low and the workload is heavy; the results of inspections rely too much on the skills of the inspectors themselves, which leads to false positives and missed detections. It is also difficult to quickly assess the situation on site, making it hard to carry out timely and effective investigations and resolutions, and thus accidents occur. Therefore, in modern factories, companies choose to add intelligent inspection robots to human labor, enabling full-process monitoring and digital management of inspection tasks in order to overcome the shortcomings of traditional inspection methods. Qiteng Robotics breaks down the production process of synthetic ammonia into various stages, identifies the difficulties and pain points associated with inspections in each of these stages, and proposes intelligent inspection solutions. These solutions enhance the safety, timeliness, and effectiveness of inspections, thereby helping to reduce costs and improve efficiency while also minimizing safety accidents in the synthetic ammonia industry. Functions of Qiteng Robot: Meter recognition and remote data reading. The image recognition capability of the Qiteng Robot replaces the need for manual data entry; through image modeling techniques and machine learning algorithms, the robot can accurately determine the status of valves in desulfurization systems, heat exchangers, natural gas preheaters, and deoxygenation tanks. It can also read the pressure values from devices such as oil level gauges, compressors, ice makers, and ammonia storage tanks. Additionally, it checks whether devices like the make-up gas separator, liquid ammonia heat exchangers, hydrogen recovery systems, low-pressure ammonia washing pumps, and high-pressure ammonia washing pump pressure gauges are functioning properly, thereby providing comprehensive records of the safe operation of these devices. ·“The “leak detection” process uses techniques such as AI-based visual recognition to accurately locate the points of leakage. Photos are taken and sent to a backend platform, where the coordinates of the leakage locations are displayed along with warnings. This system checks whether equipment such as ammonia recovery coolers, make-up gas separators, and primary and secondary ammonia separators are functioning properly, as well as whether there are any leaks in pipes, valves, flanges, and control points. ·Temperature anomaly detection: By utilizing infrared level measurement algorithms and infrared thermal imaging technology, the robot can directly collect heat data from the surface of the tank. Using temperature matrix algorithms, it is possible to accurately determine the distribution of water vapor and water in different layers. This allows for the detection of whether the operating temperatures of equipment such as liquid ammonia heat exchangers, hydrogen recovery systems, motors, compressors, pumps, flash tanks, decarboxylation towers, regeneration towers, and condensate storage tanks are within normal ranges. When the device experiences overheating, rapid temperature rise, or leakage, it can promptly detect abnormalities in the areas where the device’s temperature changes and generate alarm messages. ·Environmental anomaly detection: The high-definition cameras and infrared thermal imagers installed on the robot, combined with edge computing capabilities, enable high-resolution corrosion detection, site anomaly detection, and environmental anomaly detection. ·For hazardous gas detection, the robot is equipped with a pump-driven hazardous gas detection module that transmits data in real time to the control center, providing operators with information about the conditions at the site. When harmful gas levels exceed the allowed limits, the system issues an alarm to alert maintenance personnel to take action promptly. ·Acoustic signature recognition for pump operation: Qiteng Robots use microphones with high signal-to-noise ratios and good sensitivity to capture sounds on-site, and conduct spectral analysis in the backend to detect any abnormalities in the equipment. It can detect abnormal sounds in a specific area with high precision, enable their remote transmission and recording, and provide real-time alerts when disturbances occur, based on the sound level ranges corresponding to different frequencies in the spectrum. ·For night operations, robots use functions such as infrared thermal imaging and light compensation to capture and transmit real-time images of the site. This enables them to accurately detect various abnormalities on site and trigger automatic alarms for remote notification, thereby improving the efficiency of night operations. ·Video data collection: The robot is equipped with high-definition cameras and a video management system, offering live streaming and recording capabilities; the inspection process can be stored and replayed centrally. Video data can be integrated into existing video surveillance systems. ·Intelligent obstacle avoidance: The intelligent inspection robot is equipped with obstacle detection sensors, which enable safe operation by preventing collisions; when an obstacle is encountered during inspection, the robot will automatically stop and issue a warning. The warning methods should include sound and light, with warnings generated by the monitoring system. Once the obstacle is removed, the inspection will continue along the established route. ·Scene monitoring: It performs real-time checks to ensure that workers in the scene are wearing the required attire, counts the number of people present, and issues warnings for those who are not wearing the appropriate clothing. ·Real-time inspection: The robot is equipped with high-definition cameras and infrared imaging devices to collect image data from the site in real time. Its built-in AI chip enables edge computing, allowing the collected images to be compared with algorithm databases to facilitate real-time monitoring. At the same time, the collected video data is uploaded to a monitoring platform for centralized storage, and historical playback is supported. As a practical example, consider the inspections carried out in the ammonia synthesis area of a chemical plant. Currently, this plant is equipped with fixed detectors for toxic and harmful gases, along with an intelligent online alarm system in the control room, which enables the detection of gas leaks at specific locations. In principle, inspectors conduct inspections every hour, using a four-in-one gas detection device to manually test for gases during the inspection process. This traditional manual inspection method presents many problems, including high labor costs, heavy workload, inaccurate results, and difficulties in ensuring the safety of personnel. Based on customer requirements and taking into account the various scenarios in industrial facilities, Qiteng Robots deploys ground-based explosion-proof inspection robots, overhead track-mounted inspection robots, and fixed explosion-proof cameras. These are integrated with existing video surveillance systems to create a comprehensive inspection framework. Inspection points are designated at various production units, and inspection tasks are established; one inspection of the ammonia synthesis area is completed in about 1 hour. Inspections are carried out continuously during the day, for approximately 12 hours per day. At the same time, the robot is equipped with various intelligent sensing devices that enable real-time collection and intelligent analysis of data from the surrounding environment. It can accurately identify meters, and performs functions such as automatic diagnosis of equipment defects, intelligent operation and maintenance of environmental facilities, production safety protection, and identification of potential hazards; its recognition accuracy reaches 99.5% under normal shooting conditions. The wireless base stations are designed to be explosion-proof, and they are connected to each other via optical fibers, ensuring the stability and reliability of communication data. This enables functions such as monitoring, analysis, and alarm handling of robot data in relation to remote workstations. Conclusion: Although China’s synthetic ammonia production ranks among the highest in the world, it still needs to enhance its overall safety production capabilities and digital operation and maintenance standards in the face of global energy shortages. This can be achieved by improving synthetic ammonia production technologies, optimizing the intelligent upgrading of facilities and equipment, and introducing smart inspection robot systems. Qiteng Robotics focuses on the intelligent development of inspection technologies, expands industry application scenarios, helps enterprises establish comprehensive safety inspection systems, achieves cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and serves as a new driver for accelerating the intelligent transformation of industries and enterprises.