Baker Hughes Unveils New Hydrogen Sensor Technologies

Baker Hughes released three new measurement sensor products for gas, flow, and moisture detection and monitoring: the XMTCpro, HygroPro XP, and T5MAX Transducer. Part of the company’s Panametrics business, these technologies maintain reliability, durability, greater accuracy for critical measurements, and long-term stability in harsh operating conditions. The sensors are designed to improve safety and productivity in hydrogen and other energy applications.

“Recognizing the critical role of hydrogen in the energy transition, Baker Hughes is extending its portfolio across the hydrogen value chain and accelerating strategies to bring to market critical flow, gas and moisture sensor solutions,” said Colin Hehir, General Manager of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “Leveraging a 60-year legacy of developing sensor technology and providing customers with more accurate and reliable data, Baker Hughes sensor technologies, including the release of our three breakthrough solutions, are key to unlocking insights and driving safety and productivity.”

The XMTCPro can reliably and accurately monitor hydrogen and oxygen gas concentrations to ensure they reside below explosive limits. It is a thermal conductivity-based binary gas analyzer featuring real-time error detection and advanced signal measurement, contamination resistance, and low-maintenance requirements. The product is Safety Integrity Level-certified and can be applied for harsh-environment, industrial operations.

HygroPro XP is designed to protect customer products from the impact of trace moisture across oil and gas and industrial applications, quickly and accurately measuring moisture in gases and hydrocarbon liquids in a wide dew point range. It is a loop-powered transmitter with a compact explosion-proof enclosure, live temperature and pressure sensors, and HART communication—this allows a connection to intelligent field instruments. The product can be applied to hydrogen transportation, storage, and end-use and production operations, including the measurement of trace moisture in electrolyzer production.

The T5MAX Transducer has a signal strength four times stronger than the T5 Transducer, enabling significant improvement in ultrasonic flow meter performance for difficult hydrogen and gas flow measurement operations. For low-flow rate applications, its enhanced signal provides an extended flow path length and greater measurement accuracy. In line with standards from the World Bank’s Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership, customers have placed advance T5MAX Transducer orders to meet zero routine flaring guidelines.

(From left to right) T5MAX Transducer, XMTCpro, and HygroPro XP; Image Credits: Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes’ new measurement sensor products have a wide scope of applications, including hydrogen, oil and gas, metals, chemicals, biogas, power generation, carbon capture, utilization, and storage, and more.

In March 2024, bp was able to collect methane emissions data from its flaring operations by using Baker Hughes’ flare.IQ abatement units at 65 flares. bp intends to use this data to conduct early interventions and reduce emissions from methane flaring.

The flare.IQ unit advances ultrasonic flare metering technology and is part of Baker Hughes’ Panametrics product portfolio. The analytics platform allows operators to gather data from flare systems, such as temperature, pressure, vent gas velocities, and gas composition. A complete view of these metrics assists operators in maximizing combustion efficiency and reducing methane emissions. Emissions reporting is enhanced by flare.IQ’s presentation of real-time measurement, and it is also OGMP 2.0 level 4 compliant.

bp and Baker Hughes began a full-scale study of flare combustion in 2020, testing a variety of flares in difficult conditions and examining the accuracy of flare.IQ technology. The first trial took place on a floating production, storage, and offloading facility in the North Atlantic Ocean. Test results showed significantly high combustion performance standards above 99%, verifying that the flare.IQ platform provides accurate flare measurements for operators to make necessary intervention.

“There’s confidence for the operators on the vessel that as they get this feedback from flare.IQ, they can see how the flare is performing,” said Peter Evans, Senior Engineer, bp. “And if there is a change in performance because a component needs maintenance, or environmental conditions are putting extra stresses on the flare, they can act and make any necessary interventions right there, right then.”