An energy flowmeter has been developed and a first prototype successfully tested at a natural gas desulfurization plant. This prototype directly measures the rate of energy delivered to a gas fired furnace without having to separately determine the volumetric flow rate and heating value of the gas. By replacing two measurements with one it is expected to lower the cost of the equipment required, increase reliability, and more accurately measure energy delivered. The energy flowmeter has two main components. The first component is a flow splitting device which splits the flow into a main stream and a sample stream. The unique requirement of the flow splitter is that the ratio of the two flows must be independent of the Reynolds number in the main stream. This has been achieved for a particular design. The second component burns the sample flow with a stoichiometric quantity of air. This stoichiometric flow is in direct proportion to the energy flow of gas in the main line. The report describes the design and laboratory testing of both of the components as well as their combined operation at a field test site.
