Low emission l/P convertors for natural gas meet new environmental regulations

Overview

Low emission pneumatic controllers and overall carbon footprint reduction are today`s hot topics for electro-pneumatic control systems. As shown in the chart below, pneumatic controllers have been viewed as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions!.

Since natural gas is often an abundant pressure source, it is common practice to tap this gas as the supply for the pneumatic instrumentation. When utilising this source, however, the allowable emission levels of natural gas from the pneumatic controller are now highly regulated.

Lower emission is necessary to meet the regulations and, in many cases, is more cost effective due to the available carbon credits. I/P (electric current to pressure) transducers remain a key control interface for many natural gas applications, such as large compressor skids, so the challenge is to provide controllers which reduce or eliminate these fugitive emissions.

Explosion proof l/P transducers, such as the Fairchild TXI7850, have long been approved for and utilised in natural gas operated instrumentation systems. The explosion proof evaluation of these units by underwriting agencies such as FM, ATEX and CSA™, using standards covering a constant fuel gas presence, ensures safe and reliable operation in the field with compressed natural gas as the supply medium. Fairchild has refined its proven control technology to develop new models which exceed the recently released government requirements for allowable natural gas emissions from l/P controllers.