Abstract
An essential prerequisite for safe transport and use of natural gas is their appropriate odorization. This enables the detection of uncontrolled gas leaks. Proper and systematic odorization inspection ensures both safe use of gas and continuity of the process itself. In practice, it is conducted through, among others, measuring odorant concentrations in gas. Control devices for rapid gas odorization measurements that are currently used on a large scale in the gas industry are equipped with electrochemical detectors selective for sulfur compounds like tetrahydrothiophene (THT). Because the selectivity of electrochemical detector response to one compound (e.g., THT), the available declarations of manufacturers show that detector sensitivity (indirectly also the quality of the measurement result) is influenced by the presence of increased e.g., sulfur or hydrogen compound content in the gas. Because of the lack of sufficient source literature data in this field, it was necessary to experimentally verify this impact. The results of studies on experimental verification of suspected influence of increased amounts of hydrogen in gas on the response of electrochemical detector was carried out at the Oil and Gas Institute—National Research Institute (INiG—PIB). They are presented in this article. The data gathered in the course of researching the dependence between THT concentration measurement result quality and hydrogen content in gas composition enabled a preliminary assessment of the threat to the safety of end users of gaseous fuels caused by the introduction of this gas into the distribution network. Noticing the scope of necessary changes in the area of odorization is necessary to guarantee this safety.
Highlights
The dynamics of the gas odorization process and the need to ensure its continuity mean that gas system operators have to be able to rapidly detect odorant concentration responsible for gas odorization
The detection devices currently used on a large scale in the gas industry are equipped with electrochemical detectors selective for the sulfur compounds, e.g., tetrahydrothiophene (THT), that are commonly used in odorization
The research described in the paper enabled determining the limits for hydrogen content in gas that are tolerated by individual types of devices employed for measuring gas THT concentrations
Summary
The dynamics of the gas odorization process and the need to ensure its continuity mean that gas system operators have to be able to rapidly detect odorant concentration responsible for gas odorization. The perfect detector should be characterized by high sensitivity and a detection limit that enables recording minor quantities of the measured substance, and by high selectivity. It should exhibit a low level of baseline “noise”, the high indication stability. The emergence of selective and specific detectors have significantly simplified analyzing sulfur compounds in gas, since their use enabled eliminating the impact of responses originating from individual hydrocarbons (especially C4–C8). Specific detectors, such as FPDs, enable to selectively distinguish between individual elements, providing a high degree of certainty among analysis results. The application of its enhanced version a PFPD (pulsed flame photometric detector) enables determining the concentration of sulfur compounds in gas at the ppb level
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