Lonestar Portable Crude Oil Quality Analyser Launched

Owlstone Inc (UK) have announced the launch of their Lonestar Portable Crude Oil Quality Analyser, an instrument that can be used by any operator for rapid, at-line detection and quantification of crude oil contaminants including methanol, hydrogen sulphide scavengers (triazines), monoethanolamine (MEA) and organic chlorides.

Contaminants in crude oil can cause expensive problems at downstream processing plants. Compounds such as methanol can impact refinery water treatment facilities; triazine based H2S scavengers can cause corrosion and fouling in downstream equipment. Utilising Owlstone's proprietary Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS) technology, Lonestar can be used at-line, to analyse crude oil samples, ensuring the quality of crude before it reaches the refinery.

Commenting on the launch of the Lonestar, Owlstone co-founder, Billy Boyle said, "There are plenty of laboratory instruments, which require specialist staff, big capital outlays and long turnaround times in measurement. With the launch of Lonestar we are bringing the laboratory to the field, with a cost effective instrument that can be used by any operator".

A major advantage of the Lonestar system is that no special sample preparation is necessary. The crude analysis itself takes only 7 minutes, after which Lonestar provides a simple concentration value of the target contaminant. Lonestar can also be easily configured to provide a warning if the measured concentration is outside of pre-designated limits.

Lonestar represents a breakthrough in simple, portable crude oil assay instrumentation, which has already been shipped to numerous leading oil producers and oil service companies.