A solution for safe, precise and complaint methane monitoring

Fluid Components International’s (FCI) ST80 Series Thermal Mass Flow Meter offers the perfect solution to methane measurement and generating emission data to ensure compliance to new environmental regulations and reporting needs.

Regulatory bodies across the world state that methane remains in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas for 9 – 15 years and is actually 20 times more effective at trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Methane is generated from a variety of sources from wastewater treatment plants, mining, natural gas and petroleum refining and a host of industrial combustion processes. Methane is also the primary element withing natural gas and an important energy source in its own right. The recent COP26 Meeting in Glasgow saw many nations committing to lower methane emissions. 

FCI have developed Adaptive Sensor TechnologyTM (ASTTM), a unique hybrid sensor drive which marries together proven constant power (CP) and constant temperature (CT) thermal dispersion sensing technologies within the same instrument. In addition to ASTTM   end-users are presented with a robust, open instrument featuring a sensor design with no moving parts, that is easy to clean and can operate in the toughest of conditions. Installation in hazardous gas processing zones is no problem because the ST80 has been Div.1/Zone 1 approved, as well as being third-party evaluated SIL compliant.

There is a choice of four different precision flow sensor element designs to ensure optimum performance. This includes FCI’s new wet gas solution: the Wet Gas MASSter™ sensor, which was designed for the ST80 Series and allows the sensor head design and installation to avoid condensation, entrained moisture or rain from contacting the thermowells, thus providing precise and efficient measurements in all conditions. 

FCI’s ST80 Series Flow Meters are suitable for pipe diameters ranging from 1 - 99 inches (25 - 2500 mm) and air/gas temperatures of up to 850°F/454°C.   The ST80’s accuracy is ±1% of reading, ±0.5% of full scale with repeatability of ±0.5% of reading with flow rates from 0.25 up to 1000 SFPS (0.07 to 305 NMPS) and 100:1 turndown.

The ST80 offers output and user interface options with virtually all control system and/or set up or configuration devices; its standard outputs are dual, NAMUR NE43 compliant 4-20 mA analogue outputs, HART Version 7, Modbus 485 and a USB port. Foundation Fieldbus or PROFIBUS PA or DP can also be added optionally, so can the backlit LCD display which provides digital and bar graph flow-rate readouts as well as temperature, totalised flow, alarms, diagnostics feedback, and a user-defined label/tag field.

The transmitter is housed in a NEMA 4X/IP67 rated enclosure, selectable for NPT or metric conduit port threading; aluminum and stainless-steel versions are available. The transmitter can be positioned up to 1000 feet or 305 metres from the flow element.