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Title: Installation And Testing Of Recording Calorimeters
Author: S. m. Keehn
Source: 1965 Southwestern Gas Measurement Short Course (Now called ISHM)
Year Published: 1965
Abstract: A recent issue of an oil and gas publication predicted a forty per cent increase in domestic energy consumption over the next decade. Oil and gas will supply seventy-five per cent of this total energy required. Natural gas production will increase fifty per cent during this period to supply its share of the energy. The gas industry is Americas second largest energy supplier. It has been estimated that by 1975 natural gas will supply approximately thirty-three per cent of the total domestic energy requirement of the United States. Most of us in the industry are well acquainted with the great care and precision which goes into the measurement of each cubic foot of natural gas which we may buy or sell. This alone, however, gives us only a partial measurement of the energy being bought and sold, since there may be a great difference in the heating value of a cubic foot of gas A as compared with the heating value of a gas B. This difference in energy content in like volumes of various natural gases has led to contracts based on the purchase and sale of heat units. A heat unit is the result obtained by multiplying the cubic unit of gas measured by the heating value of gas in B.T.U. per cubic unit (both values being determined at the same pressure and temperature base). Some contracts incorporate a specified heating value clause, with adjustment of price being made proportionate with the heating value measurement above or below a specified value. Other contracts are written specifying minimum heating value at which gas will be accepted without any price correction. Still others, may specify a minimum heating value at which the gas will be accepted into a gas system. Some contracts have a combination of, or a variation of, these stipulations. It is evident, then, that an accurate and precise measurement of the heating value of the gas is essential. This measurement of heating value is usually expressed in British Thermal Units. A British Thermal Unit, or B.T.U., is that quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit at, or near, its point of maximum density (39.1 F). The recording calorimeter is the instrument most widely used to measure the B.T.U. of the gas sampled, due to its high degree of accuracy. The accuracy of a recording calorimeter is guaranteed to be 0.5 per cent of the full scale reading, but with proper care, results of 0.2 per cent can be expected. A proper installation in conjunction with a regular test and maintenance schedule should result in a high degree of accuracy. In this paper discussion will be limited to the Cutler Hammer calorimeter, the type used by our company for measuring heating value. Attention will be directed to the proper procedure to follow in installing and testing the calorimeter to insure maximum accuracy.

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