Flowmeter for Hydrogen Gas

[dogtop]

I am looking for an accurate and precise flowmeter for hydrogen gas. The ranges of operation are: for temperature between 32°F and 248°F; for pressure between 14.7 psia and 600 psia and for flow between 10 in3/min and 12,000 in3/min at STD conditions. Does anyone know of a brand or manufacturer that you could recommend based on your own experience?

I'd be grateful in advance,

dogtop

 

[moltenmetal]

For pure hydrogen, thermal massflow meters are quite good. Look at Brooks, Horiba, Porter etc.

For impure hydrogen, such that the density varies significantly by virtue of variable composition, you have only one choice- a very expensive coriolis meter- or something else with correction by means of analysis.

 

[Montemayor]

I used MicroMotion's Coriolis "Elite" model on 99.5% pure Hydrogen gas feed to batch kettle reactors for precision and accurate measurement for over 5 years and never had problems - except at the outset, where we installed them in a vibrating situation that caused accuracy deviations. This was in 1996 when we first introduced them after many failures with other measuring devices. Once we went through our "learning curve", everything fell into place and Hydrogen measurements were consistent and accurate as we could hope for.

We actually discovered that the coriolis type meter was far more economical when we added _all the costs: capital, installation, operating, maintenance, and accuracy. We standardized on using these type of meters on all Kettle feeds - not only gases - even down to caustic soda. We never regretted the investment and felt it paid itself back handsomely with the results.

10 years later, there have been great improvemnts in the instrument - even the introduction of a "straight" tube. And, I expect, the accuracy has improved even more. The competition has certainly increased since then - which only shows the success of the applications. And this tells me the pricing has to much lower than what I paid 10 years ago. When I made the analysis, I came up with orifice meters being more expensive than the coriolis type - mainly because of the installation, calibration, & maintenance costs and the accuracy loss.

 

[dogtop]

moltenmetal, Montemayor:

Thanks a lot for your comments and insights. Very useful information.
Regards, dogtop