How Thermal Mass Flow Meters Save Natural Gas

As we know, natural gas is expensive. Large industrial users are always looking to reduce costs and waste by identifying sources of gas leaks, process inefficiencies and detect inaccurate billing meters. This is particularly true for automobile, glass, aluminum & steel, food & beverage industries, and other industrial users relying on gas for their processes, climate control, and energy management systems.

Industrial plants and companies can offset the high cost of natural gas and its impact on other products and services by using thermal mass flow meters in specific areas of an industrial process or climate control.

Four Ways to Reduce Natural Gas with Flow Meters

1. Identify gas leaks and process inefficiencies — In industrial users' gas lines, the thermal mass flow meter (TMFM) is sensitive to the slightest changes in flow and can detect if a pipe is leaking or has process inefficiencies.
2. Submetering for cost allocation or identifying unusual usage — Natural gas sub metering monitors gas flow to each combustion source to identify excess usage or allocate internal costs for different operating areas. Thermal mass flow meters are ideal for providing instantaneous usage for locating extra use and total consumption areas for either cost allocation or efficiency evaluation. The advantage of measuring real-time flow is that it can pick up unusual spikes in gas usage, perhaps indicating a shipping bay door was inadvertently left open on a cold day. In which case, the meter would report the jump in usage and provide the company the opportunity to take immediate corrective action.
3. Determine the combustion efficiency of a combustion source — Natural gas is fuel for combustion sources, such as boilers, furnaces, process heaters, kilns, and burners for industrial gas. Thermal mass flow meters measure air and natural gas flow rates to a combustion source for providing optimum combustion. When too little air is present, unburnt natural gas discharges as carbon monoxide. Whereas, when too there is too much oxygen, there is excessive discharge of heat which reduces combustion efficiency. Finding the ideal air-to-fuel ratio saves natural gas and provides efficient gas usage at a combustion source.
4. Check the billing meter for accuracy — Another strategy is to use a thermal mass flow meter in a series with the billing meter provided by the gas supplier, which may have errors as large as 3-5%, potentially costing thousands of dollars in one billing period. Most billing meters usually only measure totalized flow. The advantage of measuring real-time flow is that it can pick up unusual spikes in gas usage and allow the company to promptly do something about it.

Sage Thermal Mass Flow Meters

The Sage Paramount inline-style meter has built-in flow conditioning and monitors instantaneous flow rate. The insertion probe easily installs in existing piping, whereas other flow meters may require expensive piping modifications. The thermal mass flow meter also provides mass flow measurement without pressure and temperature correction.

(This article was originally written by Alex Marcoux as a blog for Sage Metering, Inc. Alex has been working in the natural gas industry for more than two decades and is a regular contributor to Sage Metering's website and blog.