A Dirty Little Secret: Case Study On Thermal Flow Meter Calibration For Natural Gas Service

Errors associated with the calibration of flow meters for natural gas service can be costly but can also be mitigated using an advanced flow meter design that allows field-adjustment of the natural gas composition without loss of accuracy.

Even the most experienced instrumentation and process control engineers specify “natural gas” as the fluid in their thermal flow meter specifications.  In contrast, only a small handful of specifications include the actual composition of the flowing natural gas.  This often leads to the misconception that natural gas is natural gas is natural gas, regardless of location.  Gases such as argon, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen are well-defined pure gases, but if you think that natural gas always had a uniform composition, think again!