Gas Measurement

Gas concentration or identification is the basis for a number of process control or safety applications. SINTEF ICT has wide experience in gas sensing. This activity is two-fold: on one hand we focus on high performance gas sensing, on the other the focus is on practical (often low cost) single gas sensors.

For ESA and NASA we are developing an FTIR-based system for the simultaneous measurement of ~30 different gases at very different concentrations (see related article). Our main contribution is on the calibration and data analysis part, but we have also contributed to optimisation of the hardware. Our partner Kayser-Threde is responsible for the instrument.

SINTEF has also developed a number of sensors for single gas sensing. Usually the target is low cost, and thus the sensors are micro system-based. Some examples are:

• A CO2-sensor for ventilation control has been made based on the DOE-technology
• A CO2-sensor based on acoustic impedance measurement has been made (Mascot)
• Highly selective photoacoustic single gas sensors using the target gas as an active correlation filter
• A tunable multiline correlation filter sensor has been demonstrated for interference free measurement of CO, but the technique applies to a range of gases.
• SINTEF has produced long lived modulated IR-sources for gas measurement for decades. In use in e.g. Simrad Optronics hydrocarbon sensors.

On-line industrial gas measurements can serve to optimize process control. Very often this is not done, because it is challenging to provide the necessary measurement quality under rough industrial conditions. It is our ambition to bring lab techniques into “the real world”. We recently made a measurement system to measure analytically in the chimney of a ferrosilica plant for process feedback. SINTEF is now doing efforts to increase the capability for gas measurements for industrial process control.