Development of a prototype energy meter
Abstract
A pre-production prototype energy meter has been developed for determining the gross heating value of natural gas mixtures to an accuracy of 2%. The unit is small, does not rely on a combustion process, and can be produced at a cost that is substantially below existing energy metering systems. This development program has shown that dielectric constant measurements can be used to infer energy content; however, compensation techniques are needed to correct the dielectric readings for the effects of non-hydrocarbon diluent gases. A unique column separator has been developed for a compensation device. Meter control functions and computational needs are provided by a small scale microprocessor system.
- Publication:
-
Southwest Research Inst. Report
- Pub Date:
- August 1984
- Bibcode:
- 1984sri..rept.....J
- Keywords:
-
- Combustion;
- Energy Consumption;
- Heating;
- Instrument Compensation;
- Measuring Instruments;
- Mixtures;
- Natural Gas;
- Separators;
- Algorithms;
- Dielectric Properties;
- Microprocessors;
- Instrumentation and Photography