Quantitative multi-species hydrocarbon metrology in gas pipelines

准确监测储层中天然气的流量是石油公司量化其油气田生产力的一项关键能力。传统的流量计在“干气”（没有油或水存在）上运行，不提供有关气体成分的信息，只是提供平均质量流量。一种能够提供单个碳氢化合物的流量的产品将会增加巨大的价值，因为它允许计算输送的能量，开辟了新的市场，比如“保管转移”，即石油和天然气从一个运营商转移到另一个运营商。进一步的推广将是提供“湿气”成分信息的仪表，其中也存在油和水，这在接近其生产寿命结束的气田中很常见。利用成分信息加强传统流量计将使目标市场从24亿英镑增加到67亿英镑。这个市场既大又及时，一旦工作原型被证明，客户就能够投资开发。因此，它非常适合IPS融资，在3至6年的时间内提供潜在的高投资回报。该提案是Heriot-Watt大学与两家公司的合作伙伴关系，分别是干气计量领域的领导者GM Flow和Chromacity，后者于2013年从Heriot-Watt分离出来，并将我们的中红外激光技术商业化。STFC投资35.3万英镑将由工业合作伙伴的40万英镑和赫瑞瓦特的8.8万英镑（20% FEC）的直接和实物捐款来杠杆化。工业合作伙伴承诺在项目后再投资40万英镑，以完成该技术的商业化。该项目将导致创新气体计量产品的商业化，该产品提供基于激光的多物种气体浓度测量，并利用我们最近在该领域的stfc资助（ST/P00699X/1）研究。到项目结束时，合作伙伴将准备将一个完整的系统推向市场，该系统包括一个集成的激光器和光谱仪，通过光纤将中红外光传输到远程流量计头。Chromacity将主导系统集成，GM Flow负责流量计设计，Heriot-Watt负责光学设计和数据处理方面。与南安普顿ORC的合作将使该项目获得创新的低损耗“空心芯”中红外纤维，作为商用但损耗较高的氟化物玻璃纤维的替代品。STFC IPS资金将战略性地用于解决技术或商业上的“已知未知数”，这些未知数目前是技术实现概念或其商业化的障碍。将解决的技术问题包括：了解用于中红外光谱的光纤传输宽带光的范围和局限性；评估提取多种碳氢化合物浓度的算法的能力和局限性；并确定流量计内纤维馈入光谱的最佳实用实施例。类似地，该项目将回答商业上重要的问题，例如该技术提供的测量不确定度是否与客户需求兼容。与潜在的早期采用者进行现场试验也将提供重要的反馈，以确定市场可接受的最小可行产品。该项目将利用来自早期STFC资助的CLASP项目的资源（特别是9万英镑的Chromacity中红外激光器），主要的STFC资金用于消耗品和PDRA资源。作为一种实用的知识交流机制，PDRA将在第三年过渡到在Chromacity花费50%的时间，相关费用由公司承担。

Accurately monitoring the flow of natural gas from a petroleum reservoir is a critical capability that enables petroleum companies to quantify the productivity of their oil and gas fields. Conventional flow meters operate on "dry gas" (in which no oil or water is present) and offer no compositional information about the gas, simply providing an average mass-flow rate. A product delivering the flow rates of individual hydrocarbons would add significant value by allowing the energy transported to be calculated, opening up new markets such as "custody transfer", in which oil and gas are transferred from one operator to another. A further generalisation would be a meter providing compositional information of "wet gas", in which oil and water are also present, as is common from gas fields that are nearing the end of their productive lifetime. Enhancing conventional flow meters with compositional information would increase the addressable market from £2.4B to £6.7B. This market is both large and timely, with customers who are able to invest in development once a working prototype has been demonstrated. It is therefore well suited to IPS funding, offering a potentially high return on investment on a timescale of 3 to 6 years.This proposal is a partnership between Heriot-Watt University and two companies -- GM Flow, a leader in dry-gas metering, and Chromacity, which spun out from Heriot-Watt in 2013 and has commercialized our mid-infrared laser technology. STFC investment of £353K will be leveraged by direct and in-kind contributions > £400K from the industrial partners and £88K (20% FEC) from Heriot-Watt. Post-project investment of a further £400K is committed by the industrial partners to complete commercialization of the technology.The project will lead to the commercialization of an innovative gas metering product providing laser-based multi-species gas concentration measurement, and drawing on our recent STFC-funded (ST/P00699X/1) research in this area. The vision is that by the end of the project the partners will be ready to bring to market a complete system, comprising an integrated laser and spectrometer, with fibre delivery of mid-IR light to a remote flow-meter head. Chromacity will lead the system integration, GM Flow the flow-meter design and Heriot-Watt the optical design and data processing aspects. A collaboration with the ORC in Southampton will give the project access to innovative low-loss "hollow core" mid-IR fibres, as an alternative to commercially available but higher loss fluoride glass fibres.STFC IPS funding will be used strategically to resolve the technical or commercial "known unknowns" that currently stand as roadblocks to the technical realization of the concept or its commercialization. Technical questions which will be addressed include: understanding the range and limitations of fibre-delivered broadband light for mid-IR spectroscopy; assessing the capability and limitations of algorithms for extracting concentrations of multiple hydrocarbons; and identifying the best practical embodiments for fibre-fed spectroscopy within a flow-meter. Similarly, the project will answer commercially important questions, such as whether the measurement uncertainty provided by the technique is compatible with customer requirements. Field trials with potential early adopters will also provide vital feedback needed to define the minimum viable product acceptable by the market.The project will leverage resources (notably a £90K Chromacity mid-IR laser) from an earlier STFC funded CLASP project project, with the main STFC funding being used for consumables and PDRA resource. As a practical knowledge exchange mechanism, the PDRA will transition in Year 3 to spending 50% of his time in Chromacity, with the associated cost met by the company.