Methane Flow Meter
Methane Flow Meter
Methane flow measurement is straightforward in theory and frustrating in practice. The gas is clean and dry when it comes out of a pipeline — but in real installations, methane composition varies, temperature fluctuates, and conventional thermal mass flow meters drift as conditions change. If you've calibrated a meter for pure methane only to watch it give wrong readings when the gas composition shifts, you've experienced the core limitation of traditional thermal technology.
Our MEMS time-of-flight thermal meters solve this directly. By measuring the travel time of thermal pulses rather than the magnitude of heat transfer, they eliminate sensitivity to gas composition and temperature. Once zeroed in your gas, they read correctly regardless of whether conditions change — no recalibration required.
Why time-of-flight for methane?
Conventional thermal mass flow meters rely on the thermal conductivity and specific heat of the gas to translate a heat transfer measurement into a flow rate. Those properties change when methane concentration changes — even small shifts in composition cause meaningful measurement error. This matters most in biogas, landfill gas, and digester gas applications where methane percentage varies hour to hour.
Time-of-flight technology measures how long a thermal pulse takes to travel between two points. This measurement is a function of mass velocity — not gas composition or temperature. The result is a meter that holds its calibration through composition changes that would send a conventional thermal meter significantly off-course.
Common methane flow meter applications
• Biogas production monitoring — measure methane output from anaerobic digesters at farms, food processing plants, and wastewater facilities
• Landfill gas collection — measure methane extraction from gas collection wells and headers
• Natural gas submetering — allocate gas costs across buildings, tenants, or process lines
• Generator fuel metering — verify fuel consumption against runtime for maintenance and efficiency tracking
• Burner and boiler fuel measurement — measure methane to individual burners for combustion optimization
• Flare gas measurement — quantify methane sent to flare for environmental compliance reporting
• Pipeline leak detection — low-flow sensitivity enables detection of losses in distribution systems
Biogas vs pipeline natural gas — does it matter for meter selection?
Yes. Pipeline natural gas is typically 90-98% methane with a consistent composition. Biogas and landfill gas are 50-70% methane with the remainder being CO2 and trace gases — and the ratio varies. A meter calibrated for pipeline-quality gas will read incorrectly on biogas.
Our MEMS meters use a Gas Conversion Factor (GCF) that you set at commissioning for your specific gas composition. For variable composition gases like biogas, the time-of-flight principle minimizes the impact of composition shifts on measurement accuracy compared to conventional thermal meters. For highly variable compositions, contact us to discuss your application.
|
Application |
Recommended Meter |
Why |
|
Pipeline natural gas, ½" to 2" |
MEMS Thermal Mass Flow Meter |
TOF technology, no composition sensitivity |
|
Larger natural gas lines, 2" to 8" |
Industrial Thermal Mass Flow Meter |
Higher flow capacity, insertion option |
|
Biogas / landfill gas |
MEMS Thermal Mass Flow Meter |
Handles composition variation better than conventional thermal |
|
High accuracy / custody transfer |
Coriolis Flow Meter |
±0.1% accuracy, independent of gas properties |
In stock and ready to ship
MEMS thermal mass flow meters for methane ship from Salinas, CA. Standard ½" to 2" NPT configurations in stock. Each meter is zeroed and configured for your gas before shipment.
Call us at (831) 244-8080 to talk through your application, or go straight to the product page to configure and order.