Flow calorimeter for enthalpy increment measurements on condensed gases

A flow calorimeter for enthalpy increment measurements on condensed gases is presented. A better knowledge of the properties of the liquefied natural gas is needed, and therefore a liquid loop has been designed for our flow calorimeter. The fluid loop in the calorimeter is designed in order to avoid the two-phase region, since two phases would give compositional disturbances in the measurements. The avoidance of the two-phase region is made possible by increasing the pressure of the test fluid after the measurement section, then heating the fluid at super-critical pressure past the critical point. Finally, the fluid is throttled to the low-pressure gas state at the inlet condition of the compressor that circulates the fluid. To perform the pressure increase, a new cryogenic pump has been designed. To evaluate the new equipment, measurements were taken on liquid ethane over the temperature range 146–256 K at pressure between 0.9 and 5.1 MPa.