The 41^st Glo­bal Flow Mea­su­re­ment Work­shop took place in Tøns­berg, Nor­way from Octo­ber 24^th to 26^th in 2023. When we were asked whe­ther we could give a pre­sen­ta­ti­on about our new MGC^flex, we natu­ral­ly sei­zed the oppor­tu­ni­ty. The title of the pre­sen­ta­ti­on was: Intro­duc­tion of a gas chro­ma­to­graph that uti­li­zes sta­­te-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gy. We were able to report on how, with inno­va­ti­ve thin­king, the con­sis­tent use of sta­­te-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gy and the will to crea­te some­thing new, we have deve­lo­ped a new GC that is more powerful than the estab­lished sys­tems in almost every respect.

The respon­se from the audi­ence, con­sis­ting of almost 200 dele­ga­tes from all over the world, was very good. The­re was a lot of inte­rest in the tech­no­lo­gy and many exci­ting dis­cus­sions. All in all, a gre­at event and a com­ple­te suc­cess.

The Natio­nal Ener­gy Rese­arch Report of the Ger­man Minis­try for Eco­no­mic Affairs and Cli­ma­te Action fea­tures an artic­le about the con­tri­bu­ti­on of the Meter‑Q Solu­ti­ons GmbH to Get‑H₂, which is a sub­pro­ject of the Ger­man fede­ral flag­ship rese­arch pro­ject Trans­HyDE. You can read the who­le artic­le about meterQ on page 21 of the report:

Bun­des­be­richt Ener­gie­for­schung (Down­load)

The gas chro­ma­to­graphs (PGCs) from meterQ can be used for any mea­su­re­ment sce­na­rio up to and inclu­ding Ex Zone 1, for cus­t­ody trans­fer and nor­mal pro­cess mea­su­re­ments of natu­ral gas, bio­gas, hydro­gen and natu­ral gas hydro­gen mix­tures. This also appli­es when cus­t­ody trans­fer gas ana­ly­sis is requi­red to meet the ever lou­der demands for the reduc­tion of cli­­ma­­te-dama­­ging natu­ral gas emis­si­ons. With the MGC^direct, meterQ now mana­ges to redu­ce emis­si­ons by a fac­tor of 10 com­pared to an avera­ge PGC instal­la­ti­on. The com­pact mea­su­ring sys­tem of the MGC series is moun­ted as a trans­mit­ter in a small wea­ther­pro­of box direct­ly abo­ve the tap­ping point on the pipe­line, which means that the­re is no distance bet­ween the ana­ly­zer and the gas line. This con­di­ti­ons are ide­al for fast-respon­­se mea­su­re­ment. In the inte­rest of cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion, a spe­cial sam­pling sys­tem is used that trans­ports the gas nee­ded for ana­ly­sis to the pres­su­re reduc­tion unit and feeds the rest of the gas back into the pipe via a dou­ble wal­led sam­pling pro­be. In this respect, the gas exch­an­ge takes place very quick­ly. The loop in turn makes it pos­si­ble to dis­pen­se with a bypass. Com­pared to con­ven­tio­nal PGCs, this leads to a 95% reduc­tion in pro­cess gas emis­si­ons.

In addi­ti­on to that, the con­cept offers users a very fast respon­se time with regard to chan­ges in gas qua­li­ty. This makes the device sui­ta­ble for all sce­na­ri­os in which rapid detec­tion of chan­ges in gas qua­li­ty is essen­ti­al.

No special analyzer shelter necessary

Ano­ther advan­ta­ge over clas­sic instal­la­ti­ons is that a spe­cial ana­ly­zer house is no lon­ger requi­red for use. Only the ope­ra­ting gases (car­ri­er gas and cali­bra­ti­on gas) need to be available in the vici­ni­ty of the MGC^direct. For indoor instal­la­ti­ons, a con­ven­tio­nal gas sup­p­ly unit is suf­fi­ci­ent for this pur­po­se. For out­door designs, a hea­ted cabi­net and a hea­ted cali­bra­ti­on gas line are requi­red. It eli­mi­na­tes the need for the typi­cal­ly much lon­ger hea­ted sam­ple gas line in clas­sic instal­la­ti­ons. Bet­ween cabi­net and elec­tri­cal room, only the lay­ing of one Ether­net cable is neces­sa­ry.

We will be pre­sent with a booth at the Ger­man GAT 2023 trade fair in Colo­gne. Take the oppor­tu­ni­ty to visit us. The years 2022 and 2023 have been eventful and have had a strong impact on the enti­re indus­try.

Most nota­b­ly, the topic of hydro­gen is in the spot­light, but also the reduc­tion of natu­ral gas emis­si­ons in mea­su­re­ment tech­no­lo­gy has never been tal­ked about to the ext­ent of the last two years. Other topics, such as the new ups­wing of bio­gas plants fee­ding into the natu­ral gas grid and the con­s­truc­tion of LNG ter­mi­nals almost fade into the back­ground.

We at meterQ have taken up the­se new chal­lenges and will inform you about the solu­ti­ons we can offer. It starts at the qua­li­ty mea­su­re­ment of hydro­gen for injec­tion or in trans­port pipe­lines. We offer natu­ral gas ana­ly­sis sys­tems that are sui­ta­ble and appro­ved for cus­t­ody trans­fer use and at the same time work so fast that they can be used in blen­ding plants and for thres­hold moni­to­ring of the mea­su­red com­pon­ents in the ppm ran­ge. The port­fo­lio is roun­ded off by the first solu­ti­on that allows PGCs and other mea­su­ring instru­ments to be ope­ra­ted wit­hout bypass (emis­si­ons) and wit­hout having to accept any mea­su­re­ment delay.

Come visit us if you want to learn more.

Clo­se to Christ­mas it is time to look back at the year 2022. The year was uni­que and uni­que­ly suc­cessful for meterQ.

It all star­ted with the appr­ovals for MGC^flex, MGC^flex‑m and MGC^direct. PTB for the first time appro­ved a mobi­le device for cus­t­ody trans­fer, the MGC^flex‑m. This was fol­lo­wed by the MGC^direct, our ans­wer to the requi­re­ment for reduc­tion of cli­­ma­­te-dama­­ging natu­ral gas emis­si­ons in cus­t­ody trans­fer gas ana­ly­sis. The MGC^direct mana­ges to redu­ce emis­si­ons by a fac­tor of 10 (!) com­pared to an avera­ge PGC instal­la­ti­on.

In spring, we com­ple­ted the final audit for qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on accor­ding to Modu­le D for pro­duc­tion and qua­li­ty manage­ment. meterQ is now allo­wed to com­mi­si­on our cus­t­ody trans­fer gas ana­ly­zers accor­ding to Modu­le D wit­hout the pre­sence of a repre­sen­ta­ti­ve of a con­for­mi­ty assess­ment body (usual­ly from the Weights and Mea­su­res Office).

We used the rest of the year to get reco­gni­zed as sta­­te-appro­­ved test cen­ter for gas. After a num­ber of jour­neys across the coun­try, we are today sta­­te-appro­­ved test cen­ter for gas in: Hes­se, Thu­rin­gia, Sax­o­­ny-Anhalt, Sax­o­ny, Regi­on North, Lower Sax­o­ny, North Rhi­­ne-Wes­t­­pha­­lia, Saar­land, Badem-Wür­t­­te­m­­berg and Bava­ria.

In 2022, we are proud to have laid all foun­da­ti­ons for ent­ry into cus­t­ody trans­fer gas ana­ly­sis in Ger­ma­ny but also in the inter­na­tio­nal mar­ket. On top of that, we have fur­ther impro­ved our instru­ments and are alre­a­dy working on ano­ther appr­oval for a natu­ral gas ana­ly­zer as well as a cus­t­ody trans­fer hydro­gen ana­ly­zer for the future.

We at meterQ wish you a Mer­ry Christ­mas and a Hap­py New Year!

After 5 days of exhi­bi­ting at ACHEMA in the Rese­arch and Inno­va­tions sec­tion in Hall 6.0 Booth A36 at the Trans­HyDE booth we are abso­lut­e­ly over­whel­med by the respon­se. Trans­HyDE is one of the three flag­ship pro­jects of the Ger­man Fede­ral Minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch to pave the way for the coming hydro­gen infra­struc­tu­re. Als Teil­neh­mer des Teil­pro­jekts GET _H2 von Trans­HyDE durf­ten wir unse­re bis jetzt gewon­nen For­schungs­er­geb­nis­se vor­stel­len und natür­lich auch hel­fen, das Gesamt­pro­jekt vor­zu­stel­len. The inte­rest in the topic hydro­gen but also espe­ci­al­ly in our MGC^hydro­gen was huge, so that we can call this fair a 100% suc­cess.

meterQ has suc­cessful­ly com­mis­sio­ned the MGC^direct for cus­t­ody trans­fer gas qua­li­ty mea­su­re­ment. This is the first instal­la­ti­on of its kind, and it is a first step in the direc­tion of redu­cing emis­si­ons in gas qua­li­ty deter­mi­na­ti­on. A sin­gle instal­la­ti­on by its­elf cer­tain­ly does not emit huge amounts of natu­ral gas per day. Howe­ver, one must con­sider that such an instal­la­ti­on is in ope­ra­ti­on for about 15 years and that the­re are 1300 ‑1500 acti­ve in Ger­ma­ny. All in all, the­re is a con­sidera­ble poten­ti­al for saving natu­ral gas emis­si­ons. The instal­la­ti­on pre­sen­ted here is a simp­le, easy to imple­ment solu­ti­on to the pro­blem.

meterQ recei­ved an order for an MGC^flex for the deter­mi­na­ti­on of hydro­gen in the ran­ge of 90 to 100% and impu­ri­ties such as nitro­gen, car­bon dioxi­de, car­bon mon­oxi­de, metha­ne, etha­ne, pro­pa­ne and buta­ne in the ran­ge up to 1000 ppm.

In the cour­se of the Ger­man ener­gy tran­si­ti­on and the search for car­­bon-free ener­gy sources, hydro­gen is curr­ent­ly con­side­red a pro­mi­sing fuel. The rese­arch pro­ject “COSI­Ma” (CO²-neu­tral Saint-Gobain site Her­zo­gen­rath — fea­si­bi­li­ty stu­dies) deals with the inves­ti­ga­ti­on of the con­ver­si­on of a glass pro­duc­tion site to hydro­gen. In this con­text, various bur­ner tests and mea­su­re­ment cam­paigns are to be car­ri­ed out at the Gas- und Wär­­me-Ins­ti­­tut Essen e.V. on the institute’s own test faci­li­ties. For this pur­po­se, various natu­ral gas/hydrogen mix­tures are pro­du­ced and used to fire the bur­ners.

Pre­cise know­ledge of the fuel gas com­po­si­ti­on or the hydro­gen con­tent is a neces­sa­ry pre­re­qui­si­te for suc­cessful expe­ri­men­ta­ti­on. The “COSI­Ma” pro­ject is sup­port­ed by funds from the sta­te of NRW.

The MGC^flex and the MGC^mobi­le had alre­a­dy recei­ved PTB appr­oval in Febru­ary 2022. The MGC^mobi­le is the first mobi­le gas com­po­si­ti­on mea­su­re­ment with PTB appr­oval. The MGC^direct is the first PGC in the world that can be instal­led in a pro­tec­ti­ve box with the sam­ple pre­pa­ra­ti­on and sam­pling pro­be direct­ly on the sam­ple gas line.

The advan­ta­ge is that the trans­port of the gas from the pro­ces­sing plant to the MGC is only a few cen­ti­me­ters. This means that the bypass for pur­ging the dead time can be dis­pen­sed with. This saves up to 97% of natu­ral gas emis­si­ons per meter­ing point. Within 45 seconds, the MGC^direct deli­vers a repre­sen­ta­ti­ve ana­ly­sis result wit­hout bypass. In addi­ti­on to the clas­sic natu­ral gas com­pon­ents, the ana­ly­sis also includes hydro­gen, oxy­gen and nitro­gen.