Thermal mass flowmeter for hydrogen fuel vehicles

Sensyflow FMT700-P Compact is a new addition to ABB’s catalogue of thermal mass flowmeters, ideal to optimise the use of hydrogen to power electric drive trains.

Accurate to 0.8% of reading, across extendable and adjustable measuring ranges, this new flowmeter is ideally suited to fine-tuning the efficiency of cells that combine hydrogen and air to produce electrical power, emitting only water in the process.

The P Compact is compatible with other products in the Sensyflow range, and it is as well suited to conventional engine research as analysing hydrogen fuel cell performance. The compact design integrates supply and evaluation functionality, so it is easy to install with just one cable.

Analyse the cell’s performance

The P-Compact was developed to test conventional turbochargers and components such as throttle valves, intake fans and air filters, but its additional capability to analyse the performance of hydrogen fuel cells is of great interest to the automotive industry because hydrogen offers one of the most promising ways to eliminate carbon emissions from heavy transport such as trucks and buses.

The P Compact measures the mass of streaming gases directly in the unit kg/h. It is also highly accurate over a wide measuring range of 80 to 5000 kg/h for a device of nominal diameter 200 mm. In a hydrogen fuel cell test, it will measure the amount of air that enters the fuel cell to combine with hydrogen, and the response time is less than 25 milliseconds which makes it ideally suited for detecting rapid load changes.