A Cost-Effective Dual-Element Metering System for Wet Gas Flowrate Measurement

Abstract A wet gas flowmeter based on field-proven flowmeters and flow computers has been developed. The flowmeter is engineered by integrating the well-established SmartCone meter, a Pitot tube meter and filed mounted Flow Computer technologies in one wet gas metering solution. This combination exploits the characteristics of these two flow metering elements in wet gas flowrate measurement; The Cone measurement in wet gas is characterized by its relatively large gas measurement over-read with increasing liquid-loading, whereas this has a significantly lower impact on the gas flowrate measured by the Pitot tube. The DynaCone wet gas flowmeter has been in development over the past several years with particular emphasis being placed on developing a flexible flowmeter for broad operating conditions and applications including high turndown ratio, minimal pressure loss, measurement quality diagnostic, and performance characterization in industry-recognized wet gas flow loop. The wet gas performance has been demonstrated at CEESI wet gas flow loop yielding gas flowrates better than ±3% in Type I wet gas range, and better than ±5% in Type II without the input of liquid flowrate to correct for over-reading. Furthermore, uncertainties better than 2% and 3% for Type I & II respectively can be achieved if periodic liquid flowrate information is available for input.