Flare Measurement Challenges and Methodologies

There has been an increased awareness by oil and gas companies in North America towards emissions monitoring and reduction for both environmental and economical reasons. For years, several countries worldwide have had stringent regulation in place. Regulations were implemented back in 1993 relating to the measurement of fuel and flare gas for calculation of CO2 tax in the petroleum activities on the Norwegian continental shelf. Inevitably, oil companies operating on the region had to comply to this regulation. With new government legislation, producers, refineries and chemical companies have been looking for a cost effective solution to reduce emissions, and to provide tighter control for both leak detection, and mass balance. To tolerate the extreme process conditions often found in a flare line, yet provide accurate measurement to comply with regulators such as the Energy and Utilities Board, the technology of choice is of most importance. Several metering technologies have been tried and tested, and continue to be with little success today. To understand why the results have been dismal, one needs to fully understand the application and the limitations of the various flow-metering technologies used.