Going with the flow

摘要

Flares have never gone out of fashion in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, and nor are they likely to. World Bank figures suggest that over 150 million m3 of gas is flared or vented each year worldwide - 30% of total EU gas consumption if it could be recovered - and adds the equivalent of 360 million tonnes of CO_2 to greenhouse gas emissions. Economic and environmental considerations mean there is a need to monitor and measure what is going up flarestacks to meet increasingly stringent regulations and also, when gas prices are high, to justify gas recovery systems. But measuring flow in flares is not easy, say the engineers at the consultancy TUEV NEL, the former National Engineering Laboratory at East Kilbride in Scotland, now part of the TUEV testing and certification group.