A natural gas flow meter is mainly used for inline measurement of natural gas flow. The natural gas flow meter is mainly used for industrial production and trade settlement.

Natural Gas Flow Meter Selection Guide

At present, the flowmeter products used for natural gas flow measurement roughly include: gas waist wheel flowmeter, gas turbine flowmeter, precession vortex flowmeter, thermal mass flowmeter, vortex flowmeter, ultrasonic flowmeter and orifice flowmeter Wait. Let’s make a simple comparison on the use of these flow meters.

Sino-Inst offers a variety of  Natural gas flow meters for flow measurement. If you have any questions, please contact our sales engineers.

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Natural Gas Flow Meter Types

The flow measurement of natural gas is currently mainly used in trade settlement and is relatively common. my country’s natural gas trade measurement is based on the volume or energy method under the legally required quality indicators for transfer measurement. At this stage, volume measurement is basically the main method.

At present, the flowmeter products used for natural gas flow measurement generally include: gas waist wheel flowmeter, gas turbine flowmeter, precession vortex flowmeter, vortex flowmeter, ultrasonic flowmeter and orifice flowmeter. Read more about: Industrial Gas Measurement with Digital Gas Mass Flow Meters

Let’s make a simple comparison on the use of these flow meters.

Roots flowmeter

Roots flowmeter is also called gas waist wheel flowmeter. Not only can it be used to measure dry gas, but also moisture (ie associated gas). Because the orifice flowmeter and turbine flowmeter are not suitable for measuring the associated gas containing droplets. Roots flowmeter has certain advantages because of no strict requirements. In addition, another advantage is that it is not sensitive to flow arterial movement.

But pay attention to the following points when measuring natural gas:

  1. Generally, a certain mesh filter should be installed upstream of the flowmeter. To prevent the flowmeter from being stuck or blocked. And to regularly discharge sewage and check and clean the filter.
  2. In order to prevent liquid accumulation in the measuring chamber of the flowmeter, the flowmeter should be installed vertically as far as possible. Or it is higher than the process pipeline, and the effusion should be discharged regularly.
  3. Before the flowmeter is put into use, it must be ensured that there are no impurities such as welding slag in the pipeline, and the bypass should be opened. Prevent the flowmeter rotor from running at high speed and damaging the flowmeter.
  4. It is necessary to observe and pay attention to the pressure before and after the flowmeter, and judge the fault in time.

In addition, Roots flowmeter has a big disadvantage. The noise is louder when the waist wheel rotates at a high speed.

Gas turbine flowmeter

Gas turbine flowmeter is a natural gas flow meter that is used more frequently at present. The advantages are simple structure and easy installation. The overall size is relatively small. The accuracy is high. The repeatability is good. The wide range can reach 15:1～25:1. In the case of high-pressure gas transmission, the range can be further increased.

The output of the gas turbine flowmeter is a pulse frequency signal. Therefore, when it is used with a programmable flow indicator, it is easy to obtain a lower system uncertainty.

The disadvantage of the gas turbine flowmeter is that the turbine rotates at a high speed, mechanical friction between the bearing and the shaft, and the service life is not very long. Therefore, attention should be paid to lubrication, and the lubrication method provided by the manufacturer can be used to regularly replenish lubricating oil.

In addition, if the high-speed gas contains larger solid particles, it is easy to damage the turbine blades. Therefore, a filter should be installed on the pipeline before the turbine flowmeter.

Precession vortex flowmeter

The precession vortex flowmeter is the first choice for some small natural gas distribution stations.

The advantage of precession vortex flowmeter: wide operating temperature range. The scope is large. The Reynolds number is within a certain range and is not affected by fluid temperature, pressure, density and viscosity. Strong applicability. Except for impurities with larger particles or longer fibers, no filter is generally required. The requirements for the upstream and downstream straight pipe sections are relatively low, just take the upstream 4D and downstream 2D ​​straight pipe sections. The output frequency has a linear relationship with the volume flow rate.

The disadvantage is that the pressure loss is relatively large. Secondly, the precession vortex flowmeter is a fluid vibration flowmeter, which is more sensitive to pipeline vibration and electromagnetic interference. Therefore, it can only be used in an environment with low vibration and no electromagnetic interference.

Vortex flowmeter

Vortex flowmeters are currently generally used in industrial and mining enterprises for internal natural gas assessment and energy consumption measurement applications.

The overall structure design of the vortex flowmeter is reasonable, the dynamic measurement range is wide, and the pressure loss is small.

The main body of the vortex flowmeter can be made of stainless steel, which is suitable for the measurement of corrosive media. The vortex flowmeter has no moving parts and is easy to install and maintain. On-site LCD display, pulse, 4-20mA output or 485 serial communication interface. It can be connected with industrial automation system and many other advantages.

Its biggest disadvantage is that it is afraid of vibration and electromagnetic interference.

Read more about: How Vortex Flow Meter measure efficiently? For steam, gas, liquid 

Gas ultrasonic flowmeter

Gas ultrasonic flowmeter is the latest technology flowmeter product. It has many advantages such as wide measurement range, high measurement accuracy, no pressure loss and movable parts, and low installation and use costs. So far, the governments of 12 countries including the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany have approved gas ultrasonic flowmeters as legal measuring instruments for natural gas.

The accuracy of the gas ultrasonic flowmeter is not only related to the flow rate, but also related to the gauge diameter. For small-caliber instruments, it is difficult to measure the sound wave propagation time in turbulent gas due to the short sound channel length. Therefore, it is difficult to improve the accuracy of small-caliber gas ultrasonic flowmeters.

Thermal mass flow meter

A true mass flow meter does not require temperature and pressure compensation for gas flow measurement. The measurement is convenient and accurate. The gas mass flow or standard volume flow can be obtained.

Thermal mass flow meters can perform:
Gas flow measurement in steel plants and coking plants.
Boiler air flow, secondary air flow measurement.
The flow rate of flue gas discharged from the chimney is measured.
Aeration flow measurement in water rights treatment.
Gas flow measurement in the production process of cement, cigarette and glass factories.
Compressed air flow measurement.
Flow measurement of mixed gas of various natural gas, coal gas, liquefied gas (gas), flare gas, argon gas, carbon dioxide and so on.
Gas flow measurement in coking plant.

Read more about: Gas Thermal Mass Flow Meter

Orifice flowmeter

Orifice flowmeter is currently the most used flow meter for measuring the flow of natural gas.

Over the past few decades, people have summarized dozens of special research and practical applications for natural gas measurement, and a qualitative leap has taken place on the basis of quantity. The hallmark is standardization. Even use a standard orifice flow meter. It is possible to determine the relationship between the signal (differential pressure) and the flow rate without real flow calibration, and to estimate its measurement error. It is currently the only one that meets this standard among all flow meters.

In order to eliminate the major shortcomings of its own output signal being analog signal, low repeatability, narrow range, large pressure loss, orifice flowmeter adopts microelectronics technology, computer technology, fixed-value throttle and standard nozzle technology. The device has further improved its technical level.

V cone flowmeter

The natural gas flow measurement can be measured with a V-cone flowmeter. The V-cone flowmeter has the advantages of high measurement accuracy and good stability. And in the subsequent use process, there is no need for maintenance, which can greatly improve work efficiency.

The main advantage of the V-cone flowmeter is that it has better stability than other flowmeters. Secondly speaking of caliber, V cone flowmeter has a wide range ratio. Can do DN3000 caliber. It is also unmatched by other flow meters.

In short, these 8 types of flowmeters have their own advantages and their shortcomings in the measurement of natural gas flow.

Extended reading: What Is A Venturi Flow Meter?

Natural gas flow meter selection

Faced with so many varieties of natural gas flow meters, the selection has become a difficult problem.How to scientifically and objectively select the best flowmeter is a problem that needs attention.

We believe that the selection should follow appropriate rules. Try to avoid misleading propaganda from manufacturers. Blindly choose expensive ones.

Find a flow meter that is just right for yourself, it is your ideal flow meter.

Natural gas flow meter selection can be carried out in five aspects: Instrument performance. Fluid characteristics. Installation conditions. Environmental conditions and economic factors.

The various considerations are as follows:
Performance aspects of natural gas flow meters:Accuracy. repeatability. linearity. range. pressure loss. upper and lower limit flow. signal output characteristics. response time, etc.

Fluid characteristics of natural gas flowmeter:

Fluid pressure, temperature, density, viscosity. lubricity, chemical properties, numbness. corrosion, fouling, dirt, gas compressibility. iso-index, specific heat capacity, electrical conductivity. speed of sound, mixed-phase flow, pulsating flow, etc.;

Installation conditions of natural gas flowmeter:

Pipeline layout direction, flow direction, upstream and downstream pipeline length. pipeline diameter, maintenance space, pipeline vibration. grounding, power supply, auxiliary equipment (filtration, sewage), explosion protection, etc.;

Environmental conditions for natural gas flow meters:

Environmental temperature, humidity, safety, electromagnetic interference, etc.;

Economic factors of natural gas flowmeter:

Purchase cost, installation cost, maintenance cost. calibration cost, service life, operating cost (energy consumption), spare parts, etc. Fluid vibration natural gas flowmeter. There are two types of this type of flowmeter, vortex flowmeter and precession (vortex precession) flowmeter.

Users can consider their actual situation when choosing, and analyze specific problems in detail. Choose the right flow meter product to ensure the correct measurement.

Of course, if you still have technical questions when selecting natural gas flow meters, please feel free to contact Sino-Inst sales engineers.

Portable natural gas flow meter

Currently, the Portable Gas flow meter is mainly products such as German FLEXIM and GE TransPort PT878GC. However, the cost of such products is very high.

Therefore, on the basis of cost control, we need to choose a suitable natural gas flow meter.

Although, we do not have a portable gas flow meter. But we have handheld ultrasonic liquid flow meters. Read More.

Natural gas flow meter price

Sino-Inst, as a manufacturer of natural gas flowmeters, under the premise of ensuring product quality, we provide you with competitive prices for natural gas flowmeters.

The following is the reference price of natural gas flowmeter:

Natural gas flow meterPrice
Gas turbine flowmeterUSD 600.00~1200.00
Precession vortex flowmeterUSD 500.00~ 1000.00
Vortex flowmeterUSD 370.00~ 900.00
Gas ultrasonic flowmeterUSD 1600.00~35000.00
Thermal mass flow meterUSD 709.00~ 1500.00
Orifice flowmeterUSD 400.00~ 20000.00
V cone flowmeterUSD 529.00~ 1950.00

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Sino-Inst’s Natural Gas Flow Meter offer reliable and accurate volume flow measurement in a large range of sizes and pressure rating while being fully compliant with international standards.

Sino-Inst is the risk-free choice for your gas flow measurement applications.

Sino-Inst supplies Natural Gas Flow Meters, like: gas turbine flow meter. vortex flowmeter, thermal mass flow meter, and more.

Sino-Inst’s Natural Gas Flow Meters, made in China, Having good Quality, With better price. Our flow measurement instruments are widely used in China, India, Pakistan, US, and other countries.