Brewers, Make Oxygen More Your Friend, and Less Your Enemy. Check Out the Mettler Toledo InTap™ Portable Optical DO analyzer

InTap™ DO Analyzer 

Brewers have a complicated relationship with oxygen. 

At times oxygen is your friend. It's needed for barley germination. It's needed to synthesize fatty acids and sterols in yeast. And it improves colloidal stability. 

Oxygen is also one of the the brewers worst enemies. It has a significant effect on color. It lowers the  rate of wort separation. It can cause undesirable flavors. And is causes haze and makes finished beer stale.

By the way, we're talking about the dissolved oxygen (DO) in solution here. Not the external oxygen the water, wort, or beer tank headspace.

Fortunately Mettler Toledo provides instrumentation to assist brewers in they management of oxygen. Their InTap™ DO analyzer with optical technology, is both a portable measurement tool and a convenient calibration instrument. It facilitates measurement and calibration procedures in both process and laboratory settings, and reduces the risk of operator error.

The InTap™ portable oDO analyzer is a portable measurement device for dissolved oxygen

measurement and for calibration and data logging of optical dissolved oxygen ISM® sensors

(InPro® 6970i) installed in the process. The InTap™ and the sensors communicate via Bluetooth.

Measurement point tracking in the InTap™ portable dissolved oxygen meter allows operators to easily connect stored measurement data to different locations in production, making it easy to maintain records point-by-point for traceability and documentation purposes.

Reliable optical dissolved oxygen (DO) sensor technology is also available in the InTap™ portable meter for spot check and reference measurements. With Blue- tooth communication, hassle-free calibration of in-line DO sensors is done quickly and easily.

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DOWNLOAD A COMPREHENSIVE IN-LINE PROCESS ANALYTICS BROCHURE FOR PRODUCING QUALITY BEER HERE

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For more information, contact Alliance Technical Sales. They can be reached by calling 630-321-9646 or by visiting their web site at https://alliancets.com.

Jogler Dual Chamber Level System

Dual chamber systems are often ideal for magnetic level gauges. The compact design eliminates the need for coaxial probes. Dual chamber systems also allow for multiple redundant technologies, including guided wave radars, capacitance level transmitters, and tuning fork level switches.

Advantages of Dual Chambers

• Cuts out need for coaxial probes
• A single probe can be easily removed from the chamber for maintenance and cleaning
• Putting a Guided Wave Radar and a float in a single chamber requires larger pipe and flange sizes and a baffled plate between the float and the GWR coaxial probe

Disadvantages of a Single Chamber System

• A magnetic field orientation not optimal for instrument installation
• Radar interference due to the baffled plate
• Float obstruction due to an extra wall in the chamber
• Mandatory use of coaxial probe shields which are susceptible to blockage and fouling leading to
• incorrect measurements
• Increased cost and weight of the system
• Remote mounting of GWR electronics when top connections to the system are necessary

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DOWNLOAD THE FULL JOGLER DUAL CHAMBER LEVEL SYSTEM CUTSHEET FROM THIS ALLIANCE TECHNICAL SALE WEB PAGE

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HF scientific Water Quality Measurement Products Catalog

HF scientific produces instrumentation, test kits and chemical reagents used for monitoring water quality in a variety of applications. Their primary market is in the area of Industrial and Municipal water treatment, but their products are also found in industrial process control systems and marine ballast water systems.

Products Include:

• M100+ Laboratory Turbidimeter
• MTOL+ Online Process Turbidimeter
• ProCal Primary Turbidity Standards for use with the Hach® 1720 c/d/e Series Online Turbidimete
• CLX Online Residual Oxident and Chlorine Monitor
• CLX-Ex Residual Oxidant Monitor for Hazardous Atmospheres
• CLX-Ex2 Extended Reagent Life Online TRO and Chlorine Monitor for Hazardous Atmospheres
• AccUView LED Online UV Analyzer
• J.A.W. Chlorine Reagents
• DPD Reagent Dispensers
• Nitrification Inhibitor Dispensers

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DOWNLOAD THE HF SCIENTIFIC CATALOG FROM THIS ALLIANCE TECHNICAL SALES WEB PAGE

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LIDAR, Non-contact Level Transmitter for Fast and Accurate Measurement

Jogler LLT-1000

Lidar (LIDAR, LiDAR) is a surveying technique that measures distance to a destination by illuminating the target with laser light and using a sensor to measure the reflected light. Differences in laser return times and wavelengths can then be used to determine distance and area. The name lidar was initially a portmanteau of light and radar, now used as an acronym for light detection and ranging. Lidar uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light to sense and image objects.

Jogler's Lidar Level Transmitter LLT-1000 is a laser-based non-contact instrument that measures the level of silos, tanks, hoppers, chutes and bunkers. The LLT-1000 uses time-of-flight laser technology to measure distance. This principle of quick and accurate measurement provides many benefits over other level measurement techniques.

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DOWNLOAD THE LLT-1000 CUTSHEET FROM THIS ALLIANCE TECHNICAL SALES WEB PAGE

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Alliance Technical Sales, Inc.
630-321-9646
https://alliancets.com

Inline Dissolved Oxygen Sensor Designed for Breweries

InPro6970i for brewing

Oxygen in beer bottles or cans is bad. It affects the flavor and shortens shelf life, so breweries do their best to prevent oxygen getting into beer  at the filling line.  The Mettler Toledo Process Analytics InPro6970i is an inline dissolved oxygen sensor designed specifically for the needs of the brewery industry. It can measure oxygen in beer at levels of only a few parts per billion.

The sensor is inserted in the pipe at the start of the filling line, and provides real-time measurements on the oxygen content of the beer.  If the oxygen level is too high, the flow of beer is stopped to prevent the out of specification product continuing down the line.

Unlike most dissolved oxygen sensors available, the InPro6970i uses a clever optical technique for measuring oxygen. At the tip of the sensor there's a layer of molecules that absorb and emit light. These molecules are sensitive to oxygen which alters how the molecules behave. The greater the quantity of oxygen, the greater the changes in their behavior. The sensor very accurately measures these changes and sends the signal to the transmitter.  This technique is extremely fast and accurate at measuring changes in beer oxygen level, which is why it is favored by breweries. But that is not the only requirement breweries demand.  Sensors must be rugged, easy to use, and simple to maintain.The InPro6970i scores highly in all these areas. The sensor's stainless steel body is extremely robust, the unit is easily and quickly installed, and the only maintenance required is the periodic exchange of the oxygen sensitive element, the OptoCap. Intelligent Sensor Management, or ISM, is a feature of the InPro6970i that offers significant benefits to breweries. The sensor can be calibrated in a convenient location such as a lab. Upon connection to the transmitter, the system is ready to measure in only a few seconds, so measurement point down time is very short. The dynamic lifetime indicator uses sophisticated algorithms to calculate the remaining life of the sensor, breweries therefore have confidence that the sensor won't fail unexpectedly.

Contact Alliance Technical Sales for more information. Call 630-321-9646 or visit https://alliancets.com.

Happy Independence Day from Alliance Technical Sales

Oil & Gas and Power Grids Have New "Cause for Concern" from Hackers

A report released in June, from the security firm Dragos, describes a worrisome development by a hacker group named, “Xenotime” and at least two dangerous oil and gas intrusions and ongoing reconnaissance on United States power grids.

Multiple ICS (Industrial Control Sectors) sectors now face the XENOTIME threat; this means individual verticals – such as oil and gas, manufacturing, or electric – cannot ignore threats to other ICS entities because they are not specifically targeted.

The Dragos researchers have termed this threat proliferation as the world’s most dangerous cyberthreat since an event in 2017 where Xenotime had caused a serious operational outage at a crucial site in the Middle East. 

The fact that concerns cybersecurity experts the most is that this hacking attack was a malware that chose to target the facility safety processes (SIS – safety instrumentation system).

For example, when temperatures in a reactor increase to an unsafe level, an SIS will automatically start a cooling process or immediately close a valve to prevent a safety accident. The SIS safety stems are both hardware and software that combine to protect facilities from life threatening accidents.

At this point, no one is sure who is behind Xenotime. Russia has been connected to one of the critical infrastructure attacks in the Ukraine.  That attack was viewed to be the first hacker related power grid outage.

This is a “Cause for Concern” post that was published by Dragos on June 14, 2019. 

“While none of the electric utility targeting events has resulted in a known, successful intrusion into victim organizations to date, the persistent attempts, and expansion in scope is cause for definite concern. XENOTIME has successfully compromised several oil and gas environments which demonstrates its ability to do so in other verticals. Specifically, XENOTIME remains one of only four threats (along with ELECTRUM, Sandworm, and the entities responsible for Stuxnet) to execute a deliberate disruptive or destructive attack.

XENOTIME is the only known entity to specifically target safety instrumented systems (SIS) for disruptive or destructive purposes. Electric utility environments are significantly different from oil and gas operations in several aspects, but electric operations still have safety and protection equipment that could be targeted with similar tradecraft. XENOTIME expressing consistent, direct interest in electric utility operations is a cause for deep concern given this adversary’s willingness to compromise process safety – and thus integrity – to fulfill its mission.

XENOTIME’s expansion to another industry vertical is emblematic of an increasingly hostile industrial threat landscape. Most observed XENOTIME activity focuses on initial information gathering and access operations necessary for follow-on ICS intrusion operations. As seen in long-running state-sponsored intrusions into US, UK, and other electric infrastructure, entities are increasingly interested in the fundamentals of ICS operations and displaying all the hallmarks associated with information and access acquisition necessary to conduct future attacks. While Dragos sees no evidence at this time indicating that XENOTIME (or any other activity group, such as ELECTRUM or ALLANITE) is capable of executing a prolonged disruptive or destructive event on electric utility operations, observed activity strongly signals adversary interest in meeting the prerequisites for doing so.”