Patent Grant
7586094
The subject matter described herein relates to absorption spectroscopy-based measurements of gas mixtures.
Interfering absorption from background gases in a gas stream may limit detection sensitivity or even prevent detection of trace gas contaminants for absorption spectroscopy-based gas sensing systems. Among other potential problems, an inability to sensitively detect critical trace gas contaminants can present risks of serious human health and environmental hazards; damage to machinery; increased production costs; and/or degradation of product quality and product value in industrial, chemical, medical, pharmacological, and energy applications. For example, for moisture detection in natural gas (NG), it can be difficult to find a water vapor absorption transition which is totally free of background absorption interference from methane (CH4), the predominant background gas in the NG stream.
In one implementation of the current subject matter a method includes quantifying a target absorption of light in a gas sample at a target wavelength and a reference absorption of light in the gas sample at a reference wavelength. The gas sample includes a target analyte having a resolvable target spectral feature at the target wavelength and a background reference analyte having a resolvable background spectral feature at the reference wavelength as well as an interfering background spectral feature at the target wavelength. An inferred background reference analyte absorption of the background reference analyte is calculated at the target wavelength using a background gas adjustment factor that relates measured light absorption at the reference wavelength to light absorption by the background reference analyte at the target wavelength. A target analyte concentration is calculated in the gas sample by adjusting the target absorption using the inferred background reference analyte absorption to determine a calculated target analyte absorption at the target wavelength.
In another interrelated implementation, an apparatus includes a light source configured to provide a light beam that includes a target wavelength and a reference wavelength. The target wavelength is selected to approximately coincide with a target analyte resolvable spectral feature in a gas sample, and the reference wavelength is selected to approximately coincide with a background reference analyte resolvable spectral feature in the gas sample. The background reference analyte also has an interfering spectral feature in the vicinity of the target wavelength. The apparatus also includes a photodetector configured to measure a target absorption at the target wavelength and a background absorption at the reference wavelength as well as a control unit coupled to the photodetector and configured to calculate an inferred background reference analyte absorption at the target wavelength based on a measured absorption at the reference wavelength. The control unit uses the inferred background reference analyte absorption to calculate the target analyte absorption at the target wavelength and thereby quantify the concentration of the target analyte in the gas sample.
In other optional variations the gas sample can further include a second background reference analyte that has a second interfering spectral feature at the target wavelength and also a second background spectral feature at a second background reference wavelength. The method can optionally include quantifying a second reference absorption of light in the gas sample at the second reference wavelength. An inferred second background reference analyte absorption of the second background reference analyte at the target wavelength can be calculated using a second background gas adjustment factor that relates measured light absorption at the second reference wavelength to light absorption by the second background reference analyte at the target wavelength. The target analyte concentration in the gas sample can be calculated by further adjusting the target absorption using the inferred second background reference analyte absorption to determine the calculated target analyte absorption at the target wavelength.
In optional variations, an apparatus or method can also include containing the gas sample in a sample cell. The sample cell can be positioned such that light from the light source passes through the gas sample. The control unit can optionally calculate the inferred background reference analyte absorption of the background reference analyte at the target wavelength using a background gas adjustment factor that relates measured light absorption at the reference wavelength to light absorption by the background reference analyte at the target wavelength. The background gas adjustment factor can optionally be based on calibration data collected for one or more calibration samples containing the background reference analyte.
In other optional variations of the above-described implementations the target analyte can be chosen from a group consisting of water vapor, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen bromide, hydrogen iodide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, acetylene, methyl-acetylene, propadiene, sulfur dioxide, mercaptans, carbonyl sulfide, carbon disulfide, ethane, propane, ethylene, propylene, phosgene, arsine, phosphine, and oxygen, and the background reference analyte comprises one or more gases selected from hydrocarbons fluoro-carbons, chloro-carbons, freons, water vapor, ammonia, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine, hydrogen, methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane, hexane, septane, octane, nonane, decane, ethylene, propylene, butene, acetylene, vinyl-chloride, acrylonitrile, and acetonitrile.
If the target analyte is water vapor, and the background reference analyte is methane, and the target wavelength and reference wavelength can optionally be chosen from groups including approximately 1392.54 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 1392.36 nm, approximately 1392.41 nm, or approximately 1392.55 nm for the reference wavelength; approximately 1395.00 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 1395.03 nm or approximately 1394.99 nm for the reference wavelength; approximately 1854.03 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 1853.15 nm for the reference wavelength; approximately 1877.1 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 1877.05 nm for the reference wavelength; and approximately 1877.1 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 1876.99 nm for the reference wavelength. If the target analyte is carbon dioxide and the background reference analyte is ethane, the reference wavelength can optionally be approximately 2001.94 nm, and the target wavelength can optionally be chosen from a group including approximately 2000.23 nm, approximately 2000.66 nm, approximately 2001.56 mm, approximately 2003.50 nm, approximately 2004.02 nm, and approximately 2004.55 nm. If the target analyte is carbon monoxide and the background reference analyte is methane, the target wavelength and reference wavelength can optionally be chosen from groups including approximately 2389.28 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2389.32 nm for the reference wavelength approximately 2381.00 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2381.10 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2365.55 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2365.48 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2663.13 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2363.19 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2360.75 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2360.68 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2326.83 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2326.78 nm or approximately 2326.92 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2323.63 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2323.55 nm or approximately 2323.65 nm for the reference wavelength, and approximately 2313.71 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2313.67 nm for the reference wavelength.
In other optional variations, light absorption data can be collected at the target wavelength and the reference wavelength for one or more calibration gas samples having known concentrations of the target analyte and/or the background reference analyte, and the background gas adjustment factor can be generated based on the light absorption data. The light can be provided by one or more light sources that include one or more of a tunable diode laser, a tunable quantum cascade (QCL) semiconductor laser, a tunable horizontal cavity laser, a tunable vertical cavity surface emitting semiconductor laser (VCSEL), or a means for nonlinear frequency generation of tunable light. Light from at least one light source can be directed through the gas sample. The light from the at least one light source can include the target wavelength and the reference wavelength. The one light source can provide a light beam having a spectrally narrower emission bandwidth than the target analyte absorption and/or the reference analyte absorption. In other options, light from a first light source and a second light source can be passed through the gas sample. The light from the first light source can include the target wavelength and the light from the second light source can include the reference wavelength. A path length of light absorption for the first and the second light sources can be substantially identical. Light from the first and the second light sources can be multiplexed into a single physical path through the gas sample. Different wavelength modulation frequencies can optionally be used for the first and second light sources. The target wavelength and the reference wavelength can optionally be wavelength modulated to produce a harmonic output that is analyzed by a control unit or processor to calculate the background gas adjustment factor and the target analyte concentration. A current and/or a voltage output from a photodetector upon which the light at the target wavelength and the reference wavelength impinge can be measured and the measured current and/or voltage output can be analyzed by the control unit or processor to calculate the background gas adjustment factor and the target analyte concentration.
Among other possible advantages, the subject matter described herein may be used to provide real time compensation of variations in the absorption background for absorption spectroscopy-based gas sensing. By using the techniques and systems described herein, the influence of the background variations on the target gas concentration measurements can be significantly reduced or eliminated, and thus the measurement accuracy can be greatly improved. Complicated calibration experiments and correlations are not required, so that substantial simplification and reductions in the processing resources required for intensive calculations and software complexity can be implemented. Target analyte concentration measurements can be corrected to account for the interference of background analyte absorption for background analytes present at concentrations below those of the target analyte, at or near the concentration of the target analyte, and greater than the concentration of the target analyte. One or more background analytes can be corrected for if necessary.
One or more of the potential benefits of the presently disclosed subject matter may be realized in a number of combinations of gas-phase target analyte and a range of background gases, potentially over the whole optical spectrum from 100 nm to 100,000 nm. Background absorption interferences arising from multiple background gases present in the gas mixture can be corrected for as well.
This disclosure may be better understood upon reading the detailed description and by reference to the attached drawings, in which:
The presently disclosed subject matter includes methods, techniques, systems, structures, and articles of manufacture that may be used to adjust a spectroscopic measurement of a target analyte concentration to compensate for light absorption by one or more background analytes. Absorption of one or more background analytes in a gas sample can be measured at a reference wavelength and then used to infer or otherwise calculate the contribution of light absorption by the background analyte or analytes at a target wavelength where absorption of the target analyte is measured. For purposes of this disclosure, the target wavelength is the wavelength selected for the analyte measurement. The target wavelength can optionally be at or near the peak of a background analyte absorption transition as discussed in greater detail below. One or more reference wavelengths are selected and used to infer the contribution of background gases in a sample mixture to absorption observed at the target wavelength.
If the background gas concentration is relatively constant with time, the absorption at the target wavelength that is due to background analytes in a gas sample can be calibrated in advance and subtracted from the measured total absorption at the target wavelength to compensate for background analyte absorption. However, the background analyte concentration of a gas being analyzed can change for a variety of reasons. In one illustrative example, the methane concentration in a NG stream may change due to switching between NG sources or a change in the mixing ratio of different NG sources, which is a common occurrence for NG pipelines. To address this issue, the presently disclosed subject matter can monitor changing absorption due to background gases in a gas sample or gas stream and can compensate in real-time in order to achieve accurate and reliable measurement results for a target analyte.
The H2O transition at 1877.1 nm has been used for moisture detection in natural gas pipelines, for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,657,198, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Even though this transition has the smallest CH4 absorption interference among all of the water transitions available within the overtone and combinational water absorption bands in the 1300 nm-2000 nm near-infrared (NIR) spectral region, moisture detection sensitivity can nonetheless be limited due to the background methane absorption. The spectral region from 1300 nm-2000 nm, where robust tunable diode lasers are available, covers the 2 v1, 2 v3, and v1+v3 water absorption bands centered around 1400 nm, and the v1+v2 and v2+v3 bands centered around approximately 1900 nm, as shown in the chart 200 of
Referring again to
In conjunction with a method such as is shown in
The sample gas containing the target analyte and background reference gas can in some implementations have a pressure in a range of approximately 1 Pa to 107 Pa, while the target analyte can in some implementations have a concentration of at least 1 part per trillion by volume. In some implementations, the light with the first and the second wavelength can optionally be delivered to the gas sample by an optical fiber arrangement or a free space optical arrangement. The light source can optionally provide one or more wavelengths between approximately 100 nm and approximately 100,000 nm. The difference in wavelength of light absorption between the target analyte and the background reference absorption can in some implementations be greater than approximately 0.0001 nm.
A light source 408 that provides light with at least a target wavelength and a reference wavelength generates a continuous or pulsed beam 410 that is directed through the gas volume of the sample cell 402. The light source can be one of those discussed above, or other comparable sources of light that are amendable to quantification of the amount of light absorbed as it passes through the gas sample. In the example shown in
The light beam 410 is directed onto a photodetector or other device for quantifying the intensity of incident light 416 as the light beam exits the sample cell 402. The photodetector 416 can be electronically coupled to a control unit 420 that can optionally also be electronically coupled to the light source 408 as shown in
If the control unit 420 is electronically connected to the light source 408, it can optionally control the light source. For example, if the light source 408 is a tunable diode laser, such as one of those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/715,599, the control unit can control the scan and modulation rates of the driving current for the light source and also interpret the direct current measurements by the photodetector 416 to convert them to modulated 2 f values.
The reference wavelength can be chosen to approximately coincide with a background analyte absorption feature that is relatively free of interfering absorption features of other components of the gas mixture. The target wavelength can be chosen to at least approximately coincide with a target analyte absorption feature. In one example, the target analyte has an absorption line between 100 nm and 100,000 nm and the interfering background analyte has at least the one reference wavelength within ±500 nm of the target analyte wavelength. The background analyte can have an additional absorption feature that interferes with a direct spectroscopic measurement of target analyte absorption at the target wavelength using conventional spectroscopic measurements. The reference wavelength selection can be based on availability of an absorption transition of the background analyte. This selection can be based on one or more criteria, including but not limited to strength of the absorption line for the background analyte, relative isolation of the absorption transition of the background analyte from absorption features of the target analyte and also from other background gases. The strength of the absorption transition of the background analyte can be selected to be not so strong that it results in an optically opaque or nearly opaque condition. In other words, the background analyte absorption at the reference wavelength should not be so strong that no light at that wavelength is transmitted through the sample gas.
In one example, moisture concentrations in natural gas can be measured using the presently disclosed subject matter with a first wavelength of 1877.1 nm, which corresponds to a water absorption transition. The second wavelength used to calculate the background gas adjustment factor can be selected to approximately coincide with the absorption peak of CH4 on the blue side of the water absorption peak at approximately 1877.05 nm, as shown in
As noted above, many other mixtures of background and target gases can be analyzed as described herein. For example, the target analyte can optionally be one of water vapor, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, ammonia, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, acetylene, methyl-acetylene, propadiene, and oxygen in a mixture containing one or more hydrocarbon background analytes including but not limited to methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane, hexane, septane, octane, nonane, decane, ethylene, propylene, acetylene, vinyl-chloride monomers, acrylonitrile, and acetonitrile. The presently described subject matter can also work for gas mixtures with other than hydrocarbon backgrounds, including but not limited to fluorocarbons, chlorocarbons, CO2, CO and symmetrically diatomic and mono-atomic gases and any mixtures thereof.
For CO2 as the target analyte and ethane as the background analyte, possible target wavelengths include, but are not limited to, approximately 2000.23 nm, approximately 2000.66 nm, approximately 2001.56 nm, approximately 2003.50 nm, approximately 2004.02 nm, and approximately 2004.55 nm, and the reference can be, among other possibilities, approximately 2001.94 nm.
For CO as the target analyte and methane as the background analyte, possible target wavelength/reference wavelength pairs include, but are not limited to, approximately 2389.28 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2389.32 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2381.00 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2381.10 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2365.55 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2365.48 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2663.13 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2363.19 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2360.75 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2360.68 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2326.83 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2326.78 nm or approximately 2326.92 nm for the reference wavelength, approximately 2323.63 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2323.55 nm or approximately 2323.65 nm for the reference wavelength, and approximately 2313.71 nm for the target wavelength and approximately 2313.67 nm for the reference wavelength.
In one implementation, one or more calibration gas samples, each containing a known concentration or mole fraction of the background analyte, are analyzed to determine absorption at both the target wavelength and the reference wavelength. A correlation function or other mathematical relationship may be developed based on these calibration measurements to relate absorption due to the background analyte measured at the reference wavelength to absorption due to the background analyte measured at the target wavelength. In one variation, calibration samples can be used to determine a mathematical relationship between the background analyte concentration and the absorption at the second wavelength and also between the background analyte concentration and the absorption of the background analyte at the first wavelength. Then, these relationships can be used during a gas sample analysis to first determine the background analyte concentration based on measured absorption at the second wavelength and then convert the determined background analyte concentration into an expected background analyte absorption at the first wavelength. The expected background analyte concentration at the first wavelength can then be subtracted from the measured absorption at the first wavelength to yield an inferred absorption at the first wavelength that is due to the target analyte. In another alternative, a function may be determined based on the calibration samples that directly relate observed absorption at the second wavelength to expected absorption by the background analyte at the first wavelength.
As illustrated by the data shown in
In a further variation, one or more additional background analytes can also be compensated for in a similar manner. A reference wavelength for each background analyte is identified, and the procedure described above for a single background analyte is followed for each background analyte. A calculated absorption at the target wavelength is inferred for each background analyte based on the measured absorption at that background analyte's reference wavelength. For example, a first reference wavelength can be used to infer the contribution of a first background analyte to the observed absorption at the target wavelength and a second reference wavelength can be used to infer the contribution of a second background analyte to the observed absorption at the target wavelength. If there are three potentially interfering background analytes in the gas mixture, a third reference wavelength can be used to infer the contribution of a third background analyte to the observed absorption at the target wavelength, and so on for any number of potentially interfering background analytes. The criteria for picking each reference wavelength are the same as those discussed above for a single background analyte. For example, if there are two background analytes that interfere at the wavelength to be used for the target wavelength, the first and the second reference wavelengths, which could also be labeled as the second and third wavelengths can be used such that the second wavelength is used to infer a calculated absorption for the first background analyte at the target wavelength and the third wavelength is used to infer a calculated absorption for the second background analyte at the target wavelength.
A method or analyzer according to the disclosed subject matter can be implemented by measuring the absorption of the background gas at the reference wavelength either simultaneously or in parallel with the measurement of the total absorption at the target wavelength. This can be accomplished in some implementations using devices similar to those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,657,198, 7,132,661, and U.S. Pat. App. Ser. No. 60/853,313, and Ser. No. 11/818,617, all of which are incorporated by reference. For a simultaneous measurement, and when the reference wavelength is close enough to the target wavelength, both wavelengths can be covered by the scanning range of a single tunable laser. A single tunable laser light source, such as a tunable diode laser, which can include but is not limited to a distributed feedback (DFB) laser, a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), a horizontal cavity surface emitting laser (HCSEL), may provide light at both the target wavelength and the reference wavelength. Other types of lasers and light sources providing a light beam which is spectrally narrower than the width of the target or reference analyte absorption line, including but not limited to quantum cascade semiconductor lasers and nonlinear optical frequency generation, can also be used.
In an alternative implementation, an additional light source or sources can be used to measure the background absorption either simultaneously or in parallel with the measurement of the analyte absorption. For simultaneous measurements, light from the two (or more) light sources can be multiplexed into one physical path through the sample gas by time-division multiplexing, wavelength-division multiplexing, or frequency-division multiplexing, such as for example is described in X. Liu, Ph.D dissertation, Stanford University June 2006, “Line-of-sight of absorption of H2O vapor: Gas temperature sensing in uniform and non-uniform flows”, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. In another implementation, two light sources, a first providing the target wavelength and a second providing the reference wavelength, may be oriented with non-coinciding paths through a gas sample. If the gas sample is properly mixed, measurement of absorption at the reference wavelength can be used as described above to compensate for background absorption occurring at the target wavelength.
As noted above, the target or first wavelength and the reference or second wavelength can be selected to be close enough so that both wavelengths can be well covered by the scanning range of a single tunable diode laser. One specific example of this is the use of the H2O transition at 1877.1 nm as the target wavelength and its neighbor CH4 transition at 1877.05 nm as the reference wavelength, as described above for moisture detection in natural gases. The absorption response for varying methane concentrations with constant water vapor and for varying water vapor concentrations with constant methane are shown in
The subject matter described herein may be embodied in systems, apparatus, methods, and/or articles depending on the desired configuration. In particular, various aspects of the subject matter described herein may be realized in digital electronic circuitry, integrated circuitry, specially designed application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), computer hardware, firmware, software, and/or combinations thereof. These various implementations may include implementation in one or more computer programs that are executable and/or interpretable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor, which may be special or general purpose, coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device.
These computer programs (also known as programs, software, software applications or code) include machine instructions for a programmable processor, and can be implemented in a high-level procedural and/or object-oriented programming language, and/or in assembly/machine language. As used herein, the term “machine-readable medium” refers to any computer program product, apparatus and/or device (e.g., magnetic discs, optical disks, memory, programmable logic devices (PLDs)) used to provide machine instructions and/or data to a programmable processor, including a machine-readable medium that receives machine instructions as a machine-readable signal. The term “machine-readable signal” refers to any signal used to provide machine instructions and/or data to a programmable processor.
To provide for interaction with a user, implementations of the subject matter described herein can include a computer having a display device (e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor) for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device (e.g., a mouse, touchpad or trackball) by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback (e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback); and input from the user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input.
Although a few variations have been described in detail above, other modifications, additions, and implementations are possible are within the scope and spirit of the disclosed subject matter. Features implementing functions may also be physically located at various positions, including being distributed such that portions of functions are implemented at different physical locations. Further features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. For example, the implementations described above may be directed to various combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed features and/or combinations and subcombinations of several further features disclosed above. In addition, the logic flow depicted in the accompanying figures and/or described herein does not require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results.
The present patent application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/898,475, filed on Jan. 30, 2007 and entitled “Background Compensation by Multiple-Peak Measurements for Absorption Spectroscopy-Based Gas Sensing,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
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