Flow Conditioning Improves Flow Measurement Accuracy and Reduces Process Plant Cost

Product catalog summary

Introduction
Flow measurement is crucial for improving plant productivity and reducing operational costs. Accurate measurement of gases, steam, liquids, and slurries is essential in various industries such as chemicals, energy, food, and pharmaceuticals. However, flow measurement is often overlooked during plant expansions and upgrades, leading to potential cost savings being missed.

Key Considerations for Flow Instrumentation
1. Flow Sensing Technology: Choose the appropriate technology based on the process media (air, gas, steam, liquid, or slurries). Technologies include Coriolis, Turbine, Differential Pressure, Ultrasonic, Electro Magnetic, Variable Area, Positive Displacement, Vortex Shedding, and Thermal (Mass).
2. Installation Issues: Ensure adequate straight pipe runs upstream and downstream of flow meters to avoid disturbances like swirl and velocity profile distortions.
3. Flow Conditioners: Use flow conditioners to optimize flow meter accuracy and compensate for adverse installation conditions. Types include Honeycomb Vane-Type, Perforated Plates, Tab-Type, and Tube Bundles.

Installation Challenges and Solutions
Flow disturbances can significantly impact the performance of flow meters and other equipment. Solutions include:
- Using flow conditioners to improve accuracy and repeatability by 50% or more.
- Selecting the right type of flow conditioner based on process media and installation constraints.
- Minimizing pressure drop to reduce power consumption and increase throughput.

Case Studies
1. Offshore Oil Pumping Station: A tab-type elbow conditioner was used to solve space constraints and ensure proper flow into a pump.
2. Electric Power Facility: Tab-type flow conditioners were used to compensate for inadequate upstream pipe runs, ensuring an even flow profile into pumps.

Conclusions
Proper planning, selection of flow instruments, and the use of flow conditioners can optimize flow measurement performance, save plant real estate, reduce material costs, and lower installation expenses. Attention to flow measurement can lead to significant operational cost savings.

Catalog excerpts

Flow Conditioning Improves Flow Measurement Accuracy and Reduces Process Plant Cost-1

Technical Publication Improve Flow Accuracy and Reduce Costs: Putting Smart Flow Conditioning Practices to Work By Don Lundberg, Sr. Engineer Fluid Components International Visit FCI on the Worldwide Web g www.fluidcomponents.com Headquarters g 1755 La Costa Meadows Drive San Marcos, California 92078 USA Phone 760-744-6950 g Toll Free 800-854-1993 g Fax 760-736-6250 European Office g Persephonestraat 3-01 5047 TT Tilburg, The Netherlands Phone 31-13-5159989 g Fax 31-13-5799036 FCI is ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100 certified

Open the catalog to page 1

Flow Conditioning Improves Flow Measurement Accuracy and Reduces Process Plant Cost-2

Improve Flow Accuracy and Reduce Costs: Putting Smart Flow Conditioning Practices to Work By Don Lundberg, Sr Engineer, Fluid Components International The Problems In a perfect world, every plant would have an instrumentation engineer on staff who is familiar with all the different flow technologies on the market, has experience applying them in multiple processes or industries, enough budget to buy the best equipment, a great maintenance team to do the installation, etc. You can stop reading if you’re working for this company because this article is for the 95 percent of you who make up the...

Open the catalog to page 2

Flow Conditioning Improves Flow Measurement Accuracy and Reduces Process Plant Cost-3

Improve Flow Accuracy and Reduce Costs: Putting Smart Flow Conditioning Practices to Work By Don Lundberg, Sr Engineer, Fluid Components International Installation Issues FCI Mass Flow Meter One of the most common problems when installing flow instruments, especially flow meters, is an inadequate straight run upstream and downstream from the instrument. Before specifying any flow meter, you must consult the manufacturer’s specification to determine the necessary straight pipe run. Adding elbows, expansions or reductions, and/or or spiral piping in close proximity to instrumentation often further...

Open the catalog to page 3

Flow Conditioning Improves Flow Measurement Accuracy and Reduces Process Plant Cost-4

Improve Flow Accuracy and Reduce Costs: Putting Smart Flow Conditioning Practices to Work By Don Lundberg, Sr Engineer, Fluid Components International Figure 2. Tube and Elbow Tab-Type Conditioner An elbow flow conditioner also can be configured with the same tab-type flow conditioning technology (Figure 2). Many different processes and different types of flow instruments can benefit from the installation of tab type flow conditioners. At an offshore oil pumping station, for example, the process engineering team needed to add a pump to increase capacity. Elbows feeding into the pump consisted...

Open the catalog to page 4