Thermal flow meters for emission monitoring applications

What is the role of thermal flow meters in the emission monitoring applications?

Thermal mass flowmeters have a vital role in measuring the flow rates in projects for emission reporting and energy management. The market for energy management is huge, including the oil and gas industry. Thermal dispersion flow meters are used here for applications like-
measuring the flow of gas fuel to the combustion unit and compute the Sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission rate capturing the stack or fuel gas flow for Continuous Emissions Monitoring (CEM) for SO2 and Nitrous oxide (NOX) in power plantsevaluating gas field flares for reporting to environmental agencies.

Thermal mass flow meter for gas emissions at low flow rates

These applications are not easy in most gas flow meter devices. For example, in the case of measuring flares, the gas usually is not getting flared off and the device has to measure it only when one occurs. The gas flow meter, in this case, must be equipped to check the low flow rate of the pilot gas that keeps the flare in a lit state and that required for the flow sensor device to have a higher turndown and sensitivity to low flow rates. This is limited in some flow meters, like the differential pressure flow meters( DP flow meters).But thermal mass flow meter can detect low flow rates of gas.

Thermal mass flow meter for CO2 gas emissions

Operators and users are usually worried about measuring Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. But modern thermal mass flow meters are increasingly required to measure the emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas which has a 20 times higher chance of global warming than CO2. Current regulations do not allow the landfills and coal mines to emit methane into the atmosphere. They are required to either flare it off or capture and treat the methane to produce harmless and useful natural gas.
In several cases, facilities emitting biogas or landfill gas implement clean treatment mechanisms and are associated with carbon credit programs. Additionally, users in some wastewater treatment plants use gas flow meters to report the emissions for digester gas and treat some of it to reduce their energy costs by generating electricity. The thermal dispersion technology for flow meters is the most commonly used in these markets