Measurement of Mass Flow Rates of Petrochemical Particles Based on an Electrostatic Coupled Capacitance Sensor

To enable real-time monitoring of particle mass flow rate in petrochemical pneumatic conveying systems, thereby facilitating process control optimization and improving energy efficiency, an online measurement system for petrochemical particle mass flow based on a non-intrusive electrostatic coupled capacitance sensor is developed. The measurement system determines particle flow velocity by analyzing electrostatic signals using a cross-correlation method, and calculates particle concentration by applying a pre-calibration that correlates capacitance signals with concentration values. These two parameters are then combined to calculate the real-time particle mass flow rate. The performance of the developed system is evaluated under different pipe diameters and particle concentration ranges, in both lab-scale and pilot-scale pneumatic conveying rigs. The obtained results show that the measurement system achieved a maximum relative error of 5.5% for mass flow measurements in the lab-scale 50 mm pneumatic conveying pipeline when the particle concentration range was between 2.04 kg/m3 and 6.43 kg/m3. As for the pilot-scale 100 mm pneumatic conveying, the maximum relative error of the particle concentration measurement was 3.6% when the particle concentration range was 30.98~68.87 kg/m3. These results demonstrate that the developed system has strong adaptability and reliability, highlighting its broad potential for industrial applications.