methane analyzer / carbon dioxide / Wobbe index / infrared absorption

The ETG 6700 is an all-optical analytical platform using a TFS (tunable filter spectrometer) sensor powered by MKS Instruments ? Precisive. Offering a GC like speciation at unparalleled speed (<5sec); the TFS requires no carrier gas, it uses infrared absorption to measure methane, ethane, propane, butanes pentanes, carbon dioxide and % level H2S.
Composition variations in fuel gases exist, which can be detrimental to power generation equipment such as furnaces, turbines, internal combustion engines, fuel cell power plants and boilers.

Certain parameters such as heating or calorific value and Wobbe index are important to measure in real time to ensure optimum and safe operation.
In some cases, the actual composition information is needed. Two established measurement technologies exist to-date, namely gas chromatography (GC) and residual oxygen analysis.
For applications requiring real-time (in seconds) measurements, a residual oxygen analyzer is the only option given a gas chromatograph requires several minutes for each analysis update.
However, the limitation with a residual oxygen type analyzer is that it does not provide the speciated (hydrocarbon components) composition value. As a result, customers requiring both composition information and real- time measurements are forced to employ both systems in tandem.
This is a capital consideration, but also requires consideration of plumbing, sample conditioning, calibration methods, carrier-gas and instrument fuel gas, hazardous area enclosures and technical intervention.