2003-09-22 - An ABB venturi flowmeter recently became the largest flowmeter yet to be gas calibrated by gas industry specialist, Advantica. Due to be installed at Transco’s new compressor station at Bathgate, West Lothian, the 1.2m diameter flowmeter was test calibrated at the Advantica Flow Centre in Durham in line with the new standard ISO 5167:2003.
Under ISO 5167:2003, flowmeters must be calibrated under conditions which are as near as possible to an installation’s actual operating conditions.
"ABB performs in-house wet calibration of all its venturi flowmeters to ensure their accuracy meets the standards set down by ISO 5167:2003," says John Penny, DP Flow Sales Engineer, ABB. "As the flow rate of water is much smaller than that of gas, ABB advised that gas calibration should also be carried out to meet the requirements of ISO 5167:2003 for testing under near-identical conditions."
The Advantica Flow Centre specialises in calibration, testing and development of components used throughout the gas industry. Carried out on behalf of AMEC - the contractor on the project, ABB and Transco, the calibration test was performed over a wide range of flow rates to simulate the actual working conditions of Transco’s Bathgate installation.
Once installed, ABB’s flowmeter will be used to measure flow rates of over 5,000,000 kg/hr at pressures of up to 75 bar g. It will be required to deliver an accuracy of ±1% over an operational life of 20 years
Manufactured to the requirements of the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED), the flowmeter is protected against corrosion by a polyurethane coating.
ABB’s venturi flowmeter is being supplied to Transco as part of an upgrade of the Bathgate compressor station, which will see its capacity double to meet increasing gas consumption. The flowmeter will be linked to a control system used to regulate the supply of high pressure gas to the west coast of England, which covers areas including Manchester and Liverpool.
"We selected an ABB venturi flowmeter for an installation in Aberdeen and were very satisfied with its performance," says Richard Leng, Control Engineer for AMEC Oil and Gas. "The results from the gas calibration test are proof of the ability of ABB’s flowmeters to meet the working conditions of our client’s application."