Measuring steam flow using an elbow-tap flowmeter

Measuring steam flow is an important part of controlling processes within a sugar mill. There are many methods for steam flow measurement that vary in complexity, cost and equipment and many have specific use cases. Elbow-tap flow meters are not generally used for compressible fluids, but they offer some advantages in these applications including low cost, are non-invasive and they introduce no permanent pressure loss to the network. Elbow-tap flow meters were installed into three locations at different steam pressures and their performance analyzed. Overall, the flow meters performed well and produced accurate and repeatable results. One of the locations included a turbo generator steam inlet that resulted in the removal of an existing orifice flow meter. The removal of the orifice flow meter resulted in a gain in supply pressure of 70-80 kPa, leading to an increase in generation estimated at 60-240 MWh per year.