Gas Void Fraction Measurement of Gas-Liquid Two-Phase CO(2) Flow Using Laser Attenuation Technique

The carbon capture and storage (CCS) system has the potential to reduce CO(2) emissions from traditional energy industries. In order to monitor and control the CCS process, it is essential to achieve an accurate measurement of the gas void fraction in a two-phase CO(2) flow in transportation pipelines. This paper presents a novel instrumentation system based on the laser attenuation technique for the gas void fraction measurement of the two-phase CO(2) flow. The system includes an infrared laser source and a photodiode sensor array. Experiments were conducted on the horizontal and vertical test sections. Two Coriolis mass flowmeters are respectively installed on the single-phase pipelines to obtain the reference gas void fraction. The experimental results obtained show that the proposed method is effective. In the horizontal test section, the relative errors of the stratified flow are within ±8.3%, while those of the bubble flow are within ±10.6%. In the vertical test section, the proposed method performs slightly less well, with relative errors under ±12.2%. The obtained results show that the measurement system is capable of providing an accurate measurement of the gas void fraction of the two-phase CO(2) flow and a useful reference for other industrial applications.