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McCrometer Installs New Wet Gas Test Stand to Support Energy Industry R&D Programs
Company to Study Natural Gas Wells With Entrained Liquids

With the objective of supporting customers in the energy industry, McCrometer has installed a new Wet Gas Test Stand to pursue a series of new research and development (R&D) initiatives.

As energy demand increases for natural gas worldwide, energy producers are tapping lower pressure natural gas wells to increase supplies. While true multiphase measurement systems have been employed for years, gas flows with some wetness have remained a difficult metering application to solve. To make wells producing wet gas commercially viable, operators must frequently test the liquid load in the gas stream with separators or a trace method or install very large and expensive wet gas meters.

The new Wet Gas Test Stand is already in use at McCrometer as a simulation tool. With a very limited number of wet gas test labs in the world, their time is of high value and difficult to secure. Operating a privately owned Wet Gas Test Stand gives McCrometer the unique opportunity to advance the physical understanding of wet gas flows without the constraints of traditional third party testing. Unrestricted access to such tools helps speed the testing of theories and discovery. The knowledge gained from McCrometer’s Wet Gas Test Stand will be applied to improve the measurement of wet gases as well as better understand the entrained liquids in wet gas flows.

Recognized as a leader in gas, liquid and steam measurement, McCrometer’s V-Cone® Flow Meter is found in oil/gas land-based and offshore production and refining applications worldwide. The meter features built-in flow conditioning technology and is known for good performance in wet gas applications with the use of a correlation to offset the over-read. Its no-moving parts design also requires virtually no maintenance over a long life in excess of 25 years, providing a low life-cycle cost solution.

McCrometer’s space-saving V-Cone Flow Meter nearly eliminates the up and downstream straight pipe runs required by other flow meter technologies, reducing typical straight pipe run by 70 percent or more, requiring only 0-3 straight pipe diameters upstream and 0-1 downstream for precise operation. The V-Cone Flow Meter’s centrally located cone interacts with the fluid steam, reshaping the velocity profile to provide a stable signal that increases measurement accuracy.

The pressure difference exhibited between the static line pressure and the low pressure created downstream of the cone is measured via two pressure sensing taps, one placed slightly upstream of the cone and the other located in the downstream face of the cone itself. The pressure difference is then incorporated into a derivation of the Bernoulli equation to determine the fluid flow rate.

Engineers in the oil/gas industry rely on the versatility of McCrometer’s V-Cone Flow Meter, which serves line sizes from 0.5 to greater than 120 inches in materials and flanges compatible with any application. It operates over a wide flow range of 10:1, which typically covers the entire flow range required for wet gas applications.