Burning Method for the Calorie

of Natural Gas

Joohyun Lee
Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science

2014. 9. 20
APMP 2014
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 What is Natural gas
Natural Gas
-Natural gas was formed from the remains of plants and animals which lived on the Earth many
millions of years ago. Over time the remains were covered by layers of sand, rock and ice. Heat and
pressure eventually changed them into fossils. The gaseous form of these fossils is natural gas

Shale
Sandstone

Natural gas

Oil

Granite

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 Advantage and disadvantage of Natural Gas

Advantage
-Natural gas(largely methane) burns more cleanly than other fossil fuels(45% less CO2 than coal
and 30% less than oil)
-It is easily transported via pipelines and fairly easily using tankers (land and sea)
-It's relatively abundant, clean burning and seems easy to distribute.
-Natural gas is more economical than electricity
-It's also lighter than air, so if there is a leak it will tend to dissipate, unlike propane, which is
heavier than air.
-It can be used for heating, cooking, hot water, clothes dryer, backup generator power, and so forth.

Disadvantage
-Even though it is cleaner than coal and oil, it still contributes a large amount of carbon dioxide to
greenhouse gases.
-If your house is not properly insulated it can be very expensive.
-It can leak, potentially causing an explosion.

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 Natural gas reserve

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 Gas trade

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Geograpic variations of the natural gas compositions

% Methane Ethane Propane Buthane Nitrogen

Alaska 99.72 0.06 0.005 0.005 0.20

Algeria 86.98 9.35 2.33 0.63 0.71

Baltimore Gas 93.32 4.65 0.84 0.18 1.01

San Diego Gas 92.00 6.00 1.00 0.00 1.00

Venezuelan 87.30 10.10 2.10 0.20 0.30

-Calorific value of natural gas depends on the composition

-Variations of the calorific value influence on the performance of the combustion
devices such as boiler, automobiles, power plants, etc.
-Gas transactions invoiced in energy units.

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 Background of the research
Motivation

-In the near future, various gas such as bio-gas, shale gas as well as LNG will be actively
developed so accurate measurement of gas calorific value is a very important issue.
-Worldwide natural gas trade is based on the gas calorific value instead of gas volume.
-The accurate gas calorific value can be obtained only by gas calorimeter.

Purpose

-Development of the Rossini type gas calorimeter.

-The target expanded uncertainty is lower than 0.5% when 1g of methane is burned.

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 Alexandrov type

Principle
-Heat of combustion of gas is transferred
into the latent heat of the phase transition
liquid to gas

-The evaporated working fluid rose and

condense by Peltier elements

-The thermometer keeps a constant

temperature

-By comparing two cases(flame, heater),

calorific value of fuel gas is calculated

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 Rossini type

Principle
-Calorimeter is composed of burner,
calorimeter vessel and water bath

-The energy released by combustion

transfers to the water in the calorimeter
vessel

-By comparing two cases(flame, heater),

calorific value of fuel gas is calculated

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 PTB gas calorimeter
PTB gas calorimeter
-PTB developed Rossini type gas calorimter
from 2002 to 2009 by GERG project with
four contries(Germany, France, Italy, Spain)
-The uncertainty of the gas calorimeter is
less than 0.05%

Water bath Calorimeter Vessel Burner

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 Comparison of Experimental result

PTB

-The difference between the experimental data and the reference value is only 0.006%

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 LNE gas calorimeter
LNE gas calorimeter
-Gas calorimeter is surrounded by
polystyrene wall
-The heat exchanger is designed based on
the simulation result
-The uncertainty of the gas calorimeter is
less than 0.06%

Burner

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 Experimental apparatus

+
Experimental apparatus =

-The Rossini type gas calorimeter is developed.
-The burner is immersed in the calorimeter vessel which is in isothermal state by chiller.
-The burned heat in the burner is transferred to the water in the calorimeter vessel and the water temperature
is monitored so that the calorific value is calculated.
-The consumed gas quantity is measured by electric balance.

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 Components
Calorimeter Vessel

Excellent insulation with 30mm thickness and minimizing heat loss by

eliminating metal contact

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 Components
Pyrex Burner

2nd O2
Drawing Product 1st O2+Ar
CH4

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 Components
Metal Jacket Burner

Metal Jacket Burner has advantage

of accurate and easy manufacturing

Burner design is similar to Pyrex

burner and modified for easy
manufacturing

It is possible to standardize burner so

it can decrease uncertainty

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 Components
Burner
-The previous burner made of Pyrex has disadvantage such as brittleness and inaccurate manufacturing.
-KRISS has developed metal jacket burner made of stainless steel, enabling standardization of gas calorimeter.

Calorimeter vessel
- excellent insulation, Pyrex and Metal
jacket burner can be installed.
<Pyrex Burner> <Metal Jacket Burner>
<Metal Jacket
Gas calorimeter systemBurner with window>

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 Experimental results
Electrical Calibration
-The heat capacity of the calorimeter is measured by electrical calibration

24.2

23.7
Temperature(C)

23.2

22.7

22.2

21.7
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time(min)

= , =

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 Experimental results
Combustion result
-The heat capacity of the calorimeter is measured by electrical calibration

26

25.5

Temperature(C)
25

24.5

24

23.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time(min)

+
=

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 Results and Future work

Comparison between experiments and reference value of CH4 calorific value

Experiment Reference

Calorific Value 55.29 KJ/g 55.52 KJ/g

Difference 0.4%

Conclusion and Future work

-The calorific value of the methane can be measured with windowed Metal Jacket Burner with
0.4% difference.
-The update of the gas calorimeter and the uncertainty analysis are now in progress.

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