Over the last century and more, a few industries have developed large-scale integrated production and distribution systems, covering the span from source to final consumer. Oil and gas are the most obvious, covering all aspects of industrial, commercial, and consumer applications. We’ve come to call these systems value chains. With the growth of environmental concerns, we can now add carbon dioxide to this list as its capture is now being tied to its utilization and storage (CCUS).
While we may think of carbon dioxide as waste and therefore valueless, many reasons are emerging for why we must reevaluate it in the same terms of more valuable products, calling for volume and custody transfer measurements on a par with oil and gas. But measuring carbon dioxide is complex because it can take a variety of forms. Solving this challenge is the topic of my article in Global Hydrogen Review, Developing Infrastructure for CCUS.
For decades, carbon dioxide has been widely used in industries such as oil and gas (especially for enhanced oil recovery), food and beverage (for carbonation and preservation), manufacturing (for welding and chemical production), agriculture (for greenhouse enrichment), and fire suppression. However, in most of these applications, carbon dioxide emissions were treated as a byproduct rather than a significant environmental issue. But, as compared to these existing industrial uses, the CCUS industry brings completely new challenges and a higher level of complexity.
While the article does touch on how and where carbon dioxide can be sequestered or utilized, it focuses more on the gas’s unique properties and the challenges they pose for accurate measurement during pipeline transport.
Flow measurement can be challenging because of a unique physical property of carbon dioxide, namely that all three states – gas, liquid, and supercritical – occur at typical industrial operating temperatures ranging from -40 to +50 °C, and at operating pressures ranging from 100 – 200 bar. This is very different from hydrogen and methane, for example, each of which only transforms to liquid from gas phase at significantly lower temperatures, ranging from -160 to -255 °C.
The article goes into more detail on the range of conditions that might be encountered under various pipeline configurations. What’s really worth reviewing is how Emerson’s Micro Motion Coriolis Mass Flow Meters use their mass measuring capability to see through those confusing phase shifts. Moreover, this capability has been tested independently by DNV to certify Micro Motion ELITE™ Flow Meters for custody transfer use:
As the DNV findings summarised: “Emerson’s Micro Motion ELITE Coriolis flow meters are OIML R 137 certified for measurement of gases including carbon dioxide with accuracy class 1.0. The performance of the Coriolis flow meters in this joint industry project (JIP) further illustrates the capabilities of the Emerson Coriolis flow meter to generate accurate mass measurement even under challenging operating conditions.” They can thus be deployed to support the critical carbon dioxide capture, transport, and sequestration processes, helping to build a reliable infrastructure.
These are the first flow meters thus certified in this application, ensuring they will be critical as the new carbon dioxide value chain is forged.
Consultation with Emerson experts can help companies active in the CCUS value chain pick the right product from the range of available meters for their applications, with assurance that these meters will perform as designed, while complying with all applicable industry standards.
For more information, visit Emerson’s Carbon Capture Process pages at Emerson.com. You can also connect and interact with other engineers in the Oil & Gas and Chemical Processing Groups at the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
