Question 54 3AE01 - Third Assistant Engineer

The Correct Answer is C ### Why Option C is Correct: Water transducers used in conjunction with oil-water separators (like centrifuges or coalescers) are primarily employed as safety or quality control devices. Their main function is to monitor the purity of the *product* leaving the separator. If the separation process is working correctly, the 'clean oil' outlet should contain minimal water. A transducer placed in this outlet (as described in C) senses any unacceptable increase in water content, signaling that the separation process has failed or needs adjustment. This acts as an immediate alarm or triggers a diversion valve to prevent contaminated (wet) oil from entering storage or the next process stage, ensuring quality control. ### Why Other Options Are Incorrect: **A) A transducer is located inside the separator to assist in adjustment of the water and oil interface.** While some separators use interface control systems, they typically use non-intrusive level sensors (like capacitance probes or differential pressure sensors) to track the physical interface level inside the bowl or chamber. A simple water content transducer is not typically placed *inside* the separator itself for interface adjustment; it is designed to measure the composition of a flowing stream (like an outlet). **B) A transducer is located in the dirty oil inlet to measure the amount of water coming into the separator with the process fluid.** While measuring the incoming water load (B) might be useful for performance monitoring, it is not the *primary* purpose of transducers associated with quality control on the *separator*. The critical concern is guaranteeing the purity of the outgoing product. If the separation process fails, knowing the inlet conditions doesn't solve the problem of contaminated clean oil. Therefore, quality monitoring at the clean outlet (C) is a much more crucial function for these devices. **D) All of the above are correct.** Since A and B describe secondary or non-standard applications for a quality control water transducer, this option is incorrect. The most critical and common placement for quality assurance is monitoring the clean oil product stream (C).