Measurement of the void fraction of gas-liquid two-phase CO2 flow using laser attenuation techniques

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a promising technology to reduce CO2 emissions from industrial processes. However, void fraction measurement is one of the challenging issues to be solved for gas-liquid two-phase CO2 flow measurement. This paper presents a novel measurement system using laser intensity attenuation techniques to measure the void fraction of two-phase CO2 flow. The measurement system includes optical sensors, a laser detector array and a monolithic processor. The performance of the proposed measurement system is verified through experimental tests under various conditions, including stratified flow and bubbly flow. The void fraction of two-phase CO2 flow ranges from 0 to 69%. Experimental results demonstrate that the system is capable of measuring the void fraction of CO2 flow with an error between −2% and 3.6%.