How do you monitor water quality and wellhead conditions across remote desert sites – where temperatures exceed +50 °C and communication reliability is critical? Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) chose RipEX.
https//www.racom.eu/eng/case/reliable-water-well-monitoring-for-phosphate-mines
Challenge: Reliable Telemetry for Critical Water Resources in Harsh Desert Conditions
Founded in 1953, Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. (JPMC) is the world’s second-largest exporter of phosphate ore, operating three major mines across the country. As part of Jordan’s environmental sustainability requirements, JPMC needed to modernise its water-monitoring infrastructure at remote wellheads.
The company sought a communication system that could:
- Operate in harsh desert environments with extreme heat
- Provide highly reliable links over long distances
- Integrate with Siemens WinCC SCADA and S7-300 PLCs
- Use serial interfaces and simple, maintainable configurations
- Support alarm reporting for immediate fault detection
Solution: RipEX 400 MHz Radios in Bridge Mode with Serial Connectivity
After a detailed tender process, RipEX was selected as the optimal platform for wellhead monitoring.
Key reasons for choosing RipEX:
- Proven reliability in desert environments above +50 °C
- Simple configuration and easy maintenance
- Strong RF performance even at lower data rates
- Smooth integration with Siemens SCADA and PLCs via RS232
- Flexible network design using Bridge mode
As data speed was not a limiting factor, the network was configured with 4CPFSK modulation at 20 kbps, prioritising robustness and long-distance reliability.
Two RipEX base stations now serve more than 20 remote sites, collecting telemetry on water quality, pressure and temperature. Alarm thresholds send immediate notifications to the control centre whenever values deviate from expected ranges.
Results: Seamless Operation and Expansion Already Underway
This project was the first major installation delivered by PALCO, RACOM’s local partner in Jordan. With support from RACOM and straightforward configuration tools, installation and commissioning were completed smoothly.
Mr. Radwan Abu Tubbaneh, Deputy General Manager of PALCO, stated:
“The engineers did not know the product but are so delighted with the ease of installation and commissioning that they look forward to using more RipEX units when the network is scaled up and in other projects.”
Since commissioning, the RipEX network has operated seamlessly – and new orders are already being processed to expand the monitoring system across additional wellheads.
