I saw news recently of the Micro Motion high-capacity flow meters adding a 16″ (400mm) line connection size. The release notes:

This ELITE High Capacity Coriolis meter addresses the need for high accuracy, large line size measuring instruments and provides a high technology option for applications that have historically used mechanical/volumetric devices.

Here are the flow rates these meters can address:

…up to 120,000 pounds/minute (3,266,000 kilograms/hour) and density accuracies of ± 0.0005 grams per cubic centimeter. The compact design means that the new 16 inch version needs just 52 inches (1300 millimeters) between mounting flanges and, depending on the flow conditions and process fluid properties, ELITE High Capacity Coriolis meters can be mounted in any orientation. They have a wide temperature range of -400°F to 392°F (-240ºC to 200ºC), with the optional high temperature version extending this range to 662°F (350ºC). With no moving parts, Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeters are not subject to wear or measurement drift associated with the mechanical components of positive displacement (PD) or turbine meters.

I asked my friends on Emerson’s Micro Motion team to see what else I could share with you. This meter was designed to address high flow, low-pressure drop applications where accurate mass and volume measurement is needed. These applications are typically located in harsh environments such as oil and gas production, which ranges from the frozen Arctic Circle to the Middle East deserts to the salt and moisture-laden offshore atmosphere. Many of these applications have a broad range of flow rates so broad rangeability is required. And the fluids being measured may have entrained air or solids in them. These meters can provide accurate measurement during these two-phase flow conditions.

Some applications for this high capacity flow meter include oil and gas production, custody transfer, plant allocation of feedstocks, intermediates, and final products, mass balancing, and fuel blending. Specific applications include flow and mass measurements in oil production, heater treaters, custody transfer, floating production storage and offloading (FPSO), ship and/or rail loading and unloading, pipeline leak detection, marine fuel management and bunkering, gas metering, liquefied natural gas (LNG) cryogenic service, refinery production streams, and chlorides in produced fluids. This is not a comprehensive list but hopefully gives you an idea of the range of applications where these flow and mass measurement meters can be used.

In an earlier post, Flow Meter Verification, I shared how this technology built into these meters provides diagnosis of the whole flow metering system including the sensor, drive, and signal processing. This verification process is important in overall reliability and bypasses the need to remove the meter from the line. For these varied applications, it’s critical to have the meters in service and fully operational.

I hope this helps broaden the picture of this recent news.