Photon Control's proprietary optical flow metering technology offers a revolutionary advancement over traditional metering.
Gas Flaring Reduction
Flaring is the burning of the waste natural gas associated with oil production. Flaring is important.
Gas flares around the world are not being measured properly for technical reasons that are easily addressed.
Focus Probe Optical Flow Meter became a meter of choice for measuring flow of flare gases.
Flaring is the burning of gaseous hydrocarbons associated with oil production and processing. More than 150 billion cubic meters of gas are flared or vented into the atmosphere every year (approximately the annual gas consumption of Germany and France combined), substantially contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions and burning out more than $40 billions annually.
Photon optical gas flow metering technology is based on “laser-two-focus” method and it is the only laser technology which reached industrial flow metering applications.
The method requires the presence of small particles in the gas stream for purpose of light scattering and consequently determining the time particles travel from one laser beam to another. All industrial gases always contain miniature droplets of condensation, lubricants, dust and other impurities which effectively scatter the light and, most importantly, travel with the speed of gas.
Photon’s approach, therefore, converts impurities of gases into natural identifiers of gas flow. This defines first advantage of optical flow metering technology – the measurement is not affected by gas composition. The exact gas composition is not known in most of gas flaring because it is changed depending on condition of the process. Classic flow metering technique’s used to do this measuring, such as thermal mass metering, unfortunately provide a significant error in reading as soon as gas composition changes.
Miniature particulates fly in the gas at any practical pressure and, therefore, optical meters can operate at any low pressure (large flare stacks operate like big chimney ventilating gas due to wind effect on the top of the stack). Low pressure is a challenge for another classic flow metering technique – ultrasonic gas flow meters which have been successfully applied for custody transfer gas flow measurement in high-pressure natural gas pipelines but they cannot operate at negative pressure. Ultrasound needs a dense media to be transferred from one point to another, whereas vacuum is a complete isolator for sonic and ultrasonic signals.
Gas flaring is always tuned for the lowest flow rate at normal conditions for economical reason but it is frequently associated with sudden bursts of gas flow due to emergency blow-out. Such erratic gas flow requires instrumentation with very large dynamic range (or turn-down ratio in flow meters).
Photon optical gas flow meters accurately measure gas flow rate from 0.1 to 150m/s thus offering turn-down ration 1500:1. This represents a challenge for ultrasonic flow meters and it is not achievable by any other technology.
Uncover the "Top Five Challenges to Effective Flare Measurement" and learn how optical technology is helping to address the urgent problem of greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change.
Focus Probe optical flow meters were designed specifically for gas flaring reduction operations and do not require in-field calibration.
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target Act
"It's great to have these targets about the percentage reduction in greenhouse gases... but how on earth will we actually measure whether or not we're achieving their targets? ... By measuring them, we can see how well we're doing in meeting the targets. Indeed, the sheer act of measuring will give... a great deal of new insight into what works and what doesn't work without really much investment or technical change at all. ...the head of the regulatory structure in Norway... strongly urged, if not ordered, the industry to get with it and adopt that new measurement technology." Read the full transcript of the Parliamentary Session.
- Ralph Sultan, Member of BC Legislative Assembly, on Photon Control's optical sensing technology.
In line with growing worldwide concerns on greenhouse gas emission and the recently-completed UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Photon completed calibration of its Focus Probe flow meters at CEESI for pipe diameters of 8, 10, 16, 20 and 30 inches. With this larger calibrated range, Photon's meters will be able to cover all common pipes and stacks used for gas flaring, a major and growing market for the Focus Probe meter.
Optical gas flow meters are particularly beneficial for measurement of flare gas as they cover a wide range of velocities independent of gas composition and CO2 concentration.
In addition to calibration in larger pipes, the Focus Probe meter was successfully tested at velocities of 150m/s, 50% higher than it was initially tested in 2005. At almost half the speed of sound, measurement of this velocity is required for gas flares during blow-out periods. Ultrasonic gas flow meters, major competitors to Photon's Focus Probe, are not able to measure gas flows at these velocities.
Following the request from a leading oil and gas producer, the Focus Probe was recently upgraded for use at higher operating pressures, up to 300 psi or twice as high as the base model.
Photon Control is also able to report positive results from the field trial of the Focus Probe on an offshore oil producing platform in Brazil. The worldwide offshore market includes thousands of platforms, while each platform is typically equipped with two flare pipes.
In addition to receiving 37 Focus Probe meters from Photon during 2009, Russian distributor, Innotech Ltd., has placed a new order for 9 meters. This order originated from the largest Russian oil producing company, and is scheduled for delivery in January 2010. Photon's long term objectives for expansion into the gas flow metering market is an essential part of the Company's diversification program, aiming for further growth and sustainability.
Gas Flow Meters
Optical gas flow meters can be applied to virtually to any process temperature while conventional ultrasonic meters cannot measure flare gases above temperatures of 150c |
