Monitoring the changing conditions inside a delayed coke drum is an important part of managing the coking cycle. As material moves through different phases, operators need reliable information at critical points within the drum to help monitor coke formation and identify conditions that could lead to foam-over.
There are several technologies available for coke drum monitoring, including gamma transmission and neutron backscatter. While both use radiation-based measurement, they work in fundamentally different ways and provide different types of information.
So, what is the difference and why does it matter?