E-Learning

Precision, accuracy and robustness are key words and essential parameters to determine the effectiveness of any analytical application. Surveyors, refinery, and QC labs must determine the Nitrogen and Sulfur content with fewer personnel while the number of samples keep increasing and the time to report is under pressure. Moreover, all these analyses must be done in compliance with a variety of test methods, such as the ASTM D5453, ASTMD4629 and ASTM D6667. All these factors are pressing on...

We present a detailed description and experimental results for a new gas emission survey method that remotely detects and maps the locations of multiple gas emission sources distributed across an extensive area. Our method, which we call LightSource, not only localizes but also estimates the mass emission rates of each of the detected sources. The approach is generally applicable to any airborne contaminant that is passively transported and conserved during transport within the area of intere...

A Recently developed, free to use, web-based computer program has been employed to accelerate Gas Chromatography (GC) method development by direct simulation of the chromatographic process. The program makes use of a highly accurate time-summation modeling approach, coupled with large libraries of data to provide absolute retention time predictions within 1% of those obtained from experiment.  The user is able to directly control every parameter of the chromatography being modeled includi...

Owing to the high complexity of the matrices to be investigated, petroleum industry has to face a tough analytical challenge when a detailed characterization is required or not. It can be the case for different reasons such as to reach for the specifications of final fuels and products, to improve and evaluate the effectiveness of processes or additives, to monitor the ageing of fuels and lubricants...The implementation of chromatographic techniques has long been mandatory to reach for the hi...

The use of chromatography in all of its forms is a powerful and widely recognized practice in petrochemical research. Due to the continuous optimization of instrumentation and columns, substantial progress in terms of separation efficiency and selectivity, speed of analysis, and sensitivity has been made over the last decades. Many petrochemical products and derivatives thereof are generally complex due to presence of a large number of compounds with varying physicochemical properties. Moreov...

In this presentation, multidimensional GC configurations will be discussed for different petrochemical analyses. This will include classical heart-cut two-dimensional GC (2D-GC), whereby selected fractions from a high resolution first dimension separation are transferred to a high resolution second dimension separation, as well as comprehensive GC (GCxGC), whereby the entire sample is separated on a high resolution first dimension and a fast (low resolution) second dimension. The complementar...

The detection and quantification of fugitive and diffuse methane emissions has become an increasing priority in recent years. As the requirements for routine measurement to support industry initiatives increase there is a growing requirement to assess and validate the performance of fugitive emission measurement technologies. For reported emissions traceability and comparability of measurements is important. This talk will present recent work on addressing these needs.  Differential Absor...

Tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS) is an important measurement technology for gas detection, offering both high sensitivity and specificity to the target gas. With this technique, much of the engineering requirement and achievable field performance is attributable to the gas cell in which the light interacts with the target gas. We present two new technologies for gas cells, each with different attributes, used for methane detection in different applications.  The first technology ha...

Laser Dispersion Spectroscopy (LDS), is a new gas sensing technique that applies a novel approach to tuneable diode laser spectroscopy. Established laser absorption techniques depend on measuring detected intensity to derive concentration. This significantly impacts measurements in "dirty" environments where detected intensity of the transmitted light is bound to fluctuate. MIRICO's LDS-based instrument derives concentration using the phase of light. This makes it highly immune to intensity f...

In 2014 the US Department of Energy's ARPA-E program initiated MONITOR, a 45M US$ investment in methane detection technologies. The eleven technologies funded under the program are reaching the end of their second development year and beginning field testing. Initial testing has been performed at the Methane Emissions Test and Evaluation Center (METEC) at Colorado State University, which reproduces emissions behavior at oil & gas (O&G) wells, small compressor stations, and underground gas gat...

We present a case study of a validation experiment to characterise the precision and uncertainty constraints of a newly developed mass balancing flux calculation method, using in situ measurements of methane concentration sampled by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform.  This case study (funded by the UK Environment Agency) was conducted by the University of Manchester and National Physical Laboratory with assistance from the UK Met Office at its Cardington research facility. The aim...