Welcome to

 


The World Market for Thermal Flowmeters, 3rd Edition  

    
Now Shipping!

Read the Overview

Order It!

 

Articles about Thermal Flowmeters

    Discover More

      

       New Tech

       Traditional Tech

       Emerging Tech

       Multi-Tech

       Companies

       Products

       Gas

       Oil

       Liquids

       Regions

       Measurement

       Geometry

       Philosophy

       Jeans



    Follow Us

   

 

FlowTime Clock ...
What flowtime is it?

Time displayed is Flowtime.

Flow Research is working on a first-ever Mass Flowmeter Series. This series includes in-depth studies on three types of flowmeters that measure mass directly:

  • The World Market for Coriolis Flowmeters, 7th Edition

  • The World Market for Thermal Flowmeters, 3rd Edition  (Now shipping!)

  • The World Market for Mass Flow Controllers, 4th Edition

It also includes a Core Study The World Market for Mass Flow Measurement. This Core Study also includes data on multivariable flowmeters.

The thermal flowmeter study is now complete. It reveals the size of the 2022 market, within input from 2023, including the market shares of all major suppliers, and forecasts for the market through 2027.

 

Can thermal flowmeters help reverse climate change? We think they can play a big role. These cost-effective meters are ideally suited to measuring greenhouse gas and other emissions. In our 2nd Edition study, published in January 2018, we found that environmental awareness and the need for Continuous Emissions Monitoring are driving growth in the thermal flowmeter market. We found that environmental awareness and regulations are continuing to drive this market in 2023.

 

 

Flare.jpgEnvironmental awareness propels growth

The new age of environmental awareness that has spawned the Kyoto Accord, the Paris Agreement, and other greenhouse gas initiatives, has resulted in a rewriting of the rules on measuring greenhouse gas emissions. There is now a need and a demand to measure greenhouse gases in applications that formerly may have gone unnoticed. Many of these applications present opportunities for thermal flowmeters, including:

 

 

  •   Measurement and recovery of landfill gas 

  • ·  Ethanol distillation and refining 

  • ·  Measuring emissions from steam generators, boilers, and process heaters

  • ·  Biomass gasification from organic industrial waste and food waste 

  • ·   Recovery of methane from coal mines

  • ·   Monitoring of flue gas 

  • ·   Measurement and monitoring of flare gas flow 

Thermal flowmeters are uniquely suited to make these measurements because they can accurately measure different mixtures of gases and because their insertion technology allows them to handle large pipe sizes. Insertion thermal flowmeters, for example, can measure two principal causes of acid rain -- sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous oxide (NOx). They determine how much is being released into the atmosphere by combining a measurement of the flowrate with a measurement of the concentration of SO2 and NOx.

History of thermal flowmeters

The roots of thermal flowmeters go back to the hot wire anemometers that were used for airflow measurement in the early 1900s, but thermal flowmeters were first introduced for industrial applications in the 1970s. The story of how they came on the market is a fascinating one. We tell this story in our new 3rd Edition study, drawing on in-person interviews with the founders of the companies that first brought this technology to market in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Thermal flowmeters as we know them today were introduced for industrial applications in the 1970s. are Fluid Components International (FCI), Kurz Instruments, and Sierra Instruments are generally credited with introducing them to the market,. Sierra Instruments and Kurz approached the subject through hot wire anemometers. FCI approached the subject through flow switches. All three companies were pioneers in the development of thermal flowmeters, and all three companies still offer enhanced versions of these thermal flowmeters today.

You can find more information on the history and development of thermal meters in Chapter 8 of New Technology Flowmeters, written by Dr. Jesse Yoder and published by CRC Press in September 2022. You can also visit www.thermalmeters.com for a more detailed treatment.

Diagram

Description automatically generatedHow they work
While all thermal flowmeters use heat to make their flow measurements, there are two different methods for measuring how much heat is dissipated:

·         The constant temperature differential method uses thermal flowmeters with two temperature sensors: a heated sensor and another sensor that measures the temperature of the gas. Mass flowrate is computed based on the amount of electrical power required to maintain a constant difference in temperature between the two temperature sensors.

·         The constant current method uses thermal flowmeters with a heated sensor and another one that senses the temperature of the flowstream. The power to the heated sensor is kept constant. Mass flow is measured as a function of the difference between the temperatures of the heated sensor and the flowstream. 

Both methods rely on the idea that greater cooling results from higher velocity flows. Both measure mass flow based on the measured effects of cooling in the flowstream.

Popular in water & wastewater treatment
The water and wastewater industry are another key segment driving thermal flowmeter success. Thermal flowmeters have established themselves in this industry and are a replacement choice for traditional technologies such as differential pressure, as they do not introduce pressure drop into the process flow and require less maintenance.

One of the more common wastewater treatment applications is the measurement of the air/oxygen gas used to promote the secondary treatment of sludge. Careful measurement ensures that this step is conducted within ideal parameters, and that no energy is unnecessarily wasted in pumping more air or oxygen than the process requires.

Further downstream within a treatment plant, thermal flowmeters can be found in distribution pipes and aeration basins. And, on heading toward the output side, the decomposed sludge is exposed to anaerobic treatment using other specific bacteria chosen for this purpose. The result of this step is the production of water and a mixture of gases, primarily carbon dioxide and methane, which thermal meters can measure.  Methane, also called digester gas or biogas, is a growing source of a type of renewable energy. It has come into use to power on-site plant operations and is also available as a commercial product.

PHOTO - Continuous Emisions Monitoring2.JPGAdvantages and limitations
Thermal flowmeters have fast response times and excel at measuring low flowrates. They can also handle some difficult-to-measure flows and provide a direct means of measuring mass flow. 

One limitation of thermal flowmeters is that they are used almost entirely for gas flow measurement. They have difficulty measuring liquid flows because of the slow response time involved in using the thermal principle on liquids. Some companies, however, have released thermal flowmeters for liquid flow measurement.

A second limitation is in their accuracy. Thermal flowmeters are not nearly as accurate as Coriolis meters, and typical accuracy levels are in the one percent to three percent range. However, thermal suppliers are working to improve the accuracy of their flowmeters. Expect wider use of thermal flowmeters as their accuracy levels increase.


Mass flow controllers
One type of thermal flowmeter, a mass flow controller, contains an integrated control valve that is used to control the flow as well as measure it. Most mass flow controllers use thermal principles to determine mass flow, although some use a pressure-based measurement. 

The mass flow controller market is one of the most rapidly developing markets in the flowmeter world today. Mass flow controllers are not included in this study, although Flow Research has published a separate study on this market

 

Articles about Thermal Flowmeters

About the 2009 Study

Mass Flow Controller Study

All Flowmeter Studies


 

 
 
Flow Research, Inc. | 27 Water Street | Wakefield, MA 01880 | (781) 245-3200 | (781) 224-7552 (fax) | (800) 245-1799 (from the USA) | info@flowresearch.com

Hit Counter