Verification of a Hydrogen Flow Meter

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GM Flow are UK based designers and manufacturers of flow measurement equipment. Potential customers in the emerging hydrogen economy tell us that an accurate, low cost and easy to use hydrogen flow meter does not exist either when it is being produced by electrolysis, or when it is being pumped at high pressures into cars and trucks in vehicle fuelling stations.GM Flow have designed a flow meter and performed extensive Computational Fluid Dynamics flow modelling of the product. We now wish to flow check and verify the meter's performance using hydrogen where possible, so that customers have confidence in its output functionality and accuracy. Maximum flow rate conditions rule out the possibility of using hydrogen (for safety and pressure reasons), so we wish to verify if a combination of nitrogen flow testing and CFD can be used to bench mark the performance of each flow meter across the full operating envelope.A method which uses similar Reynolds numbers to provide transferable and verifiable flow performance is used in the oil and gas industry, this method has not yet been used in the hydrogen sector. We wish to champion its use, so that we can reduce our internal costs and provide more competitive products to our customers.Success in this project will allow electrolyser manufacturers to verify the output of their equipment, maximising hydrogen generation capacity and significantly reducing the cost of each Kg produced, a major driver for the industry. In fuelling applications, the alternative for customers is a coriolis flow meter, which generates a very high pressure drop. By utilising our flow meter instead of coriolis, customers will achieve increased flow rates and decreased fuelling time, a major driver for fuelling equipment providers.