West Virginia Patent of the Month – March 2023
The natural gas industry has seen significant growth in recent years, thanks to advancements in drilling and fracking technologies. As a result, the industry now produces natural gas liquids (NGL) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) at unprecedented rates, which are used for heating, fuel, and petrochemical feedstock. However, in the process of custody transfer and end-use of these products, it is essential to measure the energy content accurately to ensure financial accountability. This is where Mustang Sampling LLC‘s invention comes in.
Mustang Sampling is the innovator of Analytically Accurate® solutions within sample conditioning systems. They recently patented their design for equipment which provides staged and stepped pressure reduction, which maintains select temperatures to minimize the risk of approaching the vapor’s phase transition boundary. This equipment is typically located in-line between the output of a liquid sample vaporizer and vapor feed line to a downstream analyzer/chromatograph. By maintaining the correct temperature and pressure, the risk of phase transition and vapor condensation is minimized, ensuring that the downstream analyzer/chromatograph is not fouled with liquid input.
Prior art regulators are not dynamically adjustable and require specified minimum output pressures to meet or exceed the threshold input vapor gating pressure of the immediate downstream system. Furthermore, an array of dedicated in-line regulators are typically manufactured and calibrated for a specific application and, once manufactured, are not easily converted or adaptable for uses outside the specific parameters of the application.
Mustang Sampling’s equipment solves these problems. Its dynamically adjustable regulators can handle a wide range of applications, making it adaptable for various uses. The equipment also reduces the footprint of an array of discrete individual systems by stacking the pressure-reducing regulator elements in a modular, multistage structure. This makes the equipment compact and efficient, saving space and money.
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