Product category:
Form/co-ordinate, optical and vision instrumentation
News Release from: IMA | Subject: Gas moisture analyser
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 07 July 2004
Laser-based system offers online
moisture analysis
A NASA mission to unlock the history of Mars has developed laser technology that can also make water vapour and other gas measurements easier here on Earth.
A NASA mission to unlock the history of Mars has developed laser technology that can also make water vapour and other gas measurements easier here on Earth Water vapour measurement in natural gas is particularly important as high moisture levels can encourage the formation of methane hydrate, a solid that forms in the pipeline and reduces flow or can even block the line completely
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 14 Feb 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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This new technology offers many advantages for industrial applications.
Being a noncontact measurement it has the ability to cope with highly contaminated or aggressive gases.
The greater accuracy (+/-2% of reading) means that online systems can approach the accuracy normally associated with transfer standard laboratory measurements made in clean gas.
One of the most impressive aspects of the instrument is its speed of response.
Being a measurement of light you might expect it to be quick and it is.
As the system measures the light absorbed by a gas space, rather then waiting for the surface of a sensor to either absorb or desorb water vapour, the instrument can drop from ambient conditions of around 12,000ppm to 2ppm in less than 6s.
This compares with a 4 to 6h wait with other dewpoint measurement systems.
The heart of the water vapour sensing systems is a small tunable laser diode (about 2mm2) that produces a very narrow and specific wavelength of light tuned to a harmonic of the water vapour molecule in the near-infra-red band.
The light causes the molecule to vibrate and therefore absorb energy.
The laser is scanned through the specific wavelength of interest and, by comparing the light energy being absorbed at a water vapour wavelength to the light energy at surrounding wavelengths, a very precise measurement can be made.
What sets tunable diode laser (TDL) systems apart from other NIR analysers is the ability to get down to parts-per-million levels.
The technique is particularly good at detecting low levels of water vapour (or other gases).
"Measurements in natural gas are never easy", says Paul Stockwell, Marketing Director with IMA.
"That's why we have chosen the Instrumentation show in Aberdeen for the European product launch".
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