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Monitoring ppm Levels of Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide from Stacks
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Carbon monoxide (CO) is produced in various combustion effluents as a product of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. It is frequently found at ppm to % levels. The analyzer can be used to tune to source to improve the efficiency and reduce the levels of CO. The CO2 level can also be determined. Effluents generally contain high levels of water, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulate matter. Since CO is slightly soluble in water, any condensation in the lines would result in a loss of sample. Thus, a stack gas conditioning system was needed to remove water without effecting the CO. We used a hot (150C) filter and Permapure dryer to remove the particulate and water respectively. Now, once the water was removed from the effluent, an ambient temperature line can be run from the conditioning system to the analyzer housing. A schematic representation of the analyzer configuration is shown at the top of the next column in Fig. 1. The analyzer was located in an instrument housing at the base of the stack and was tied into the process controller via the 4-20 mA output from the Model 301-B Automatic GC. A photo of the analyzer in the Control Room is shown in Fig. 2 below.
Fig. 2 GC301C
After a review of the application and columns available, we chose carbosphere as a packing in order to separate methane, CO and CO2. The analysis time for CO was 1.56 minutes. The typical reproducibility obtained with the system at a concentration of 10 ppm is excellent at +/- 2.3 %. The chromatogram for this analysis is shown below in Figure 3 and Table I illustrates the reproducibility over a range from 4200 ppm for CO.
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According to one user, the instrument was necessary to reduce problems and complaints at the plant.
ppm CO
Run # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total Ave. Std. dev. CV %
Options
4.75 4.09 4.22 4.71 4.23 4.34 4.29 30.6 4.38 0.25 5.81 9.75 9.56 10.0 9.64 9.88 9.88 10.2 69.0 9.85 0.23 2.32 24.45 24.98 25.15 24.54 24.73 24.41 24.69 173.0 24.71 0.27 1.11 51.33 50.82 51.47 51.19 51.55 50.89 104.79 103.96 103.91 104.73 104.11 104.15 104.37 205.53 202.89 206.94 206.27 205.82 205.42 205.42
4-20 mA X or Z purging Other Detectors Available: PID, TCD, FUV, & ECD
The detection principle for CO & CO2 involves the reduction to methane over a hot nickel catalyst (methanizer) followed by analysis by an FID. The sample is burned in a hydrogen-air flame and the resulting carbon ions are measured in an ion chamber. The ionization chamber in the FID contains a pair of electrodes. A positive potential is applied to the accelerating electrode which creates a field driving ions to the
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