As a process control professional, you understand the importance of trustworthy volumetric liquid flow measurements for everything from chemical and water injection to feedwater control and pipeline control. Magnetic flow meters have proven to excel in these and other challenging applications. This is particularly true for slurries and other corrosive processes or when reverse flow measurements may be needed.
Below, Cheng Vue, global product manager at Emerson, addresses some questions about how the company is pushing the envelope on innovation with magnetic flow meters that are more intelligent, trustworthy, and easier to use than ever before.
Why would I specify a magnetic flow meter over a potentially less expensive and easier to understand mechanical, vortex, or differential pressure flow meter?
Most volumetric flow meters have sensor elements that intrude upon and obstruct the process flow. When measuring corrosive fluids or slurries, this degrades accuracy over time, requiring costly and often disruptive maintenance and recalibration. Obstructions can also produce undesirable pressure drops. With obstructionless, flow-through sensors and no moving parts, well designed magnetic flow meters can maintain their accuracy almost indefinitely without requiring periodic maintenance or recalibration. Magnetic flow meters can also accommodate bidirectional flow metering applications and — unlike most other volumetric flow measurement instrumentation — don’t require relatively long runs of upstream and downstream piping for reliable measurements. This reduces space requirements and simplifies installation.
Magnetic flow meters are a relatively mature flow measurement technology. What kind of innovation are you seeing, and how could this benefit my process operations?
In fact, we’re seeing lots of innovation in this space. For example, in addition to increased accuracy, stability, and reduced power requirements, our latest Rosemount™ 9000 Series™ Magnetic Flow Meters offer increased intelligence that provides valuable insights into both the instruments and the process. More intelligent self-diagnostics verify that the instrument is within calibration, the grounding and wiring are correct, and both the flow sensor and transmitter are functioning correctly. Advanced signal processing algorithms filter out process noise to give you a clean, dependable, accurate, and stable measurement. By creating a baseline for the process noise, trending it over time, and retaining that and other data in the onboard historian, the flow meter can also help identify subtle changes in the process itself. These include entrained sand, changes in the process mixture, or pump vibration.
These types of process insights can be a real game changer, especially when authorized users can access them for remote visualization.
Are you seeing any interesting new applications for magnetic flow meters?
Yes. In one example, an increasing number of oil and gas industry services companies are using our magnetic flow meters in their hydraulic fracturing operations. Here, the flow meters provide accurate and reliable flow measurements of both the injected and produced water, which involve slurry-rich and often corrosive process fluids. In addition to helping maximize production, these trustworthy measurements are important to satisfy regulatory reporting requirements, which vary from state to state. We’re also seeing increased interest in magnetic flow meters for custody transfer applications.
What features and capabilities should I be looking for when specifying a modern magnetic flow meter, and why?
In today’s data-intensive environment, your authorized users and applications need to be able to access comprehensive and easy-to-understand device diagnostics and process insights from anywhere and at any time to help verify proper installation and identify impending issues before they can negatively impact operations.
Built-in smart verification capabilities enable you to verify flow meter calibration for regulatory compliance without having to take the flow meter out of service.
Configurable input/output channels can also be a game changer for many end users. The Rosemount 9000 Series Magnetic Flow Meters offer configurable and licensable multi-channel I/O. This includes channels for analog, pulse, and frequency outputs, plus HART® and Modbus® digital communications. This type of communications flexibility enables you to seamlessly integrate the flow meter with current systems at purchase and then field license additional channels as needed in the future.
As new technicians in our plants replace the more experienced ones approaching retirement age, it’s important to select flow meters that are easy to install, commission, and maintain. To this end, you should look for easy-to-read local interfaces with support for multiple languages, Bluetooth® connectivity for configuration and troubleshooting, and easy connectivity to remote asset management applications for advanced diagnostics and visualization. Relatively simple installation characteristics will also make the instrumentation easier to install and commission. Our latest family of flow meters, for example, uses a universal AC/DC power supply that doesn’t require you to specify one type of power over the other.
Can I use magnetic flow meters in my hazardous plant environments?
Certainly, as long as you configure them with the appropriate approvals. Our new magnetic flow meters, for example, provide a robust solution that can suit all applications. They have safety approvals for use in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere. The redesigned, intrinsically safe mag sensor is 85% more energy efficient. This avoids the need to pull a hot work permit in the unlikely case that field maintenance is required on the mag flow sensor. The complete magnetic flow meter is agency-approved for use in Class 1 Division 1, Class 1 Division 2, or Zone 0/1/2 hazardous areas. For hydrogen applications, Class I Div 1 now includes gas group B, where hydrogen gas is present.
Emerson (NYSE: EMR) is a global automation leader delivering solutions for the most demanding technology challenges. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Emerson is engineering the autonomous future, enabling customers to optimize operations and accelerate innovation.
