NEL has invested £500,000 (US $760,000) in the development of a new high pressure multiphase flow facility at its laboratories in Glasgow, Scotland.

This will create the UK’s only facility capable of testing meters to these pressures, with the facility able to operate at pressures up to 60 bar (equivalent to a water depth of 600 m / 1,969 ft). It will also replicate a wide range of multiphase flow conditions, said NEL, providing both equipment vendors and operators with an independent facility for development, verification and validation purposes.

It added the facility would help operators to reduce both capital and operating costs through increased flow meter reliability. It will be commissioned during the last quarter of this year and be fully operational by the end of 2013.

NEL’s flow measurement facilities are the primary flow measurement standard for the UK, under the UK’s National Measurement System (NMS), added the company.