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Comparison of Five Natural Gas Equations of State Used for Flow and Energy Measurement

Published

Author(s)

Aaron N. Johnson, William Johansen

Abstract

Measurements of the flow and the energy content of natural gas rely on equations of state to compute four thermodynamic properties: 1) compressibility factor; 2) critical flow factor; 3) speed of sound; and 4)isentropic exponent. We compare these computed properties using five equations of state (REFPROP 8,GERG 2004, AGA 8, AGA 10, REFPROP 7) for eight natural gas compositions. The compositions vary from 97 % methane to 80 % methane; the latter has high levels of ethane, nitrogen, or carbon dioxide. These comparisons span the pressure and temperature ranges 0.1 MPa to 10 MPa and 270 K to 330 K. The five equations of state predict mutually consistent properties at low pressures. However, at 7 MPa, inconsistencies among the speeds of sound exceed 0.1 % and inconsistencies among critical flow factors exceed 0.3 % when the ethane concentrations exceed 8 % or the carbon dioxide concentration exceeds 7 %. We discovered discontinuities of 0.075 % in the critical flow factor computed by AGA 10.
Proceedings Title
Annual International Symposium on Fluid Flow Measurement | 7th | | CEESI
Conference Dates
August 12-14, 2009
Conference Location
Anchorage, AK

Keywords

AGA 8, AGA 10, critical flow factor, GERG 2004, natural gas, Refprop

Citation

Johnson, A. and Johansen, W. (2009), Comparison of Five Natural Gas Equations of State Used for Flow and Energy Measurement, Annual International Symposium on Fluid Flow Measurement | 7th | | CEESI, Anchorage, AK, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=903432 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created August 14, 2009, Updated June 2, 2021