piston or pipe prover

[DYV1973]

LS,

For a calibration unit for positive displacement flowmeters for fluids, we are investigating the possibility of a piston or pipe prover. Does anyone have experience with these provers, and are there manufacturers of standard provers.

thanks,
DYV

 

[Ron]

Why not just deposit the liquid that flows through into a calibrated container and compare the volumes?

 

[BigInch]

Quite a few possible reasons come to mind. Not always convenient like when your container is 250,000 barrels big, 20 miles out in the ocean, rocking in the wind and waves, changing shape since the temperature changed by the time they measured it. Or the product is cold on the bottom and hot on the surface. Then to begin with of course you need to know the volume of that container pretty accurately too, which might be questionable, if the container is a ship or a 100K BBL tank. Or maybe its not even going in a container, just being transshipped directly into another pipeline. Filling up 500,000 calibrated BBLS each day through a nozzle at a few hundred psi would be dangerous and would take quite a few workers just to do it. I would imagine the custody transfer spex require a prover too.

You're looking for a "meter proving system". I operated one like this for loading ships off of Puerto Coveñas Marine Terminal, Colombia.

Do one prove run on each change of products or when some property change is noted on a shift of crudes, etc., temperature variations and ... we pushed the button on shift changes too, just for teaching the operator trainees good habits.

How big you need?

http://www.krohne.com/Prover_systems.11290.0.html

http://books.google.es/books?id=Vvlknz0MyNAC&pg=PA228&

lpg=PA228&dq=prover+systems+volume&source=bl&ots=taNcrCRchU&
sig=9CweCSkMtRiqWiIQv1CDNSTrQS0&hl=en&
ei=_70ZSsC3G6DNjAfjjIiFDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&
resnum=9

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"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies)

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

 

[JLSeagull]

Is this for a meter within a unit; or a custody transfer meter?

Several prover types exist. If applicable, consider low-volume provers or rental prover services.