McCrometer Newsletter March 2002

Wet gas metering has become very popular in the natural gas production industry and many meter manufacturers are focusing on improving their wet gas meter products. Differential Pressure (DP) meters are a popular choice for wet gas metering, although historically, Orifice Plates were used, with or without drain holes.

Entrained liquid in a gas flow causes a DP meter to over predict the gas flowrate. The scale of this "over-reading" is proportional to the liquid content. The DP meter over-readings are typically corrected with the use of correlations based on experimental and field data.

Recently, industry has been turning away from Orifice Plates. This is because, when a gas flow is wet, the plate holds up the liquid and the resulting slugging through the orifice leads to unstable DP readings. Preventing this with a drainage system has had only limited success. Venturis and Nozzles hold up less liquid upstream of the meter, while the V-Cone holds up less still as the liquid is free to flow down the pipe wall. Various wet gas DP meter correlations have been published for specific flow condition ranges.

For more information on McCrometer’s products for wet gas metering, contact McCrometer at 951-652-6811 or visit our web-site a <http://www.mccrometer.com>.

*******************************************

Copyright 2002 McCrometer