Detection of oil in water and water in oil emulsions inside a phase separator washing tank

Three sensors to detect water, oil, water in oil or oil in water emulsions inside a phase separator washing tank are described in this paper. These sensors are based in conductivity and capacitive principles. A novel multicell capacitive sensor which can be used to obtain the whole profile of the washing tank, i.e. the position of the air, water, oil and emulsion in the tank is proposed and experimental results discussed.