Construction of a low-cost automated chromatographic system for the measurement of ambient methane

A fully automated gas chromatographic system was constructed to perform in situ measurement of atmospheric methane. To reduce cost, this system avoided the use of a conventional gas chromatography (GC), instead a direct resistive heated molecular sieve packed column with precise temperature control...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Analytica chimica acta 2001-12, Vol.448 (1), p.187-193
Main Authors: Wang, Jia-Lin, Kuo, Show-Ru, Ma, Si-Shen, Chen, Tai-Yih
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis methods
Analytical chemistry
Applied sciences
Atmospheric pollution
Chemistry
Chromatographic methods and physical methods associated with chromatography
Exact sciences and technology
Gas chromatographic methods
In-situ measurement
Methane
Nocturnal radiation inversion
Pollution
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Summary:A fully automated gas chromatographic system was constructed to perform in situ measurement of atmospheric methane. To reduce cost, this system avoided the use of a conventional gas chromatography (GC), instead a direct resistive heated molecular sieve packed column with precise temperature control was constructed to permit rapid temperature ramping and cooling and, therefore, shorter turn-over time. No heat-cut or back-flush of high boiling residue was necessary, which often requires a pre-column and additional flow of carrier gas. The precision ( n=47) of the system was better than 0.20% at near background level (1.8 ppmv), and the linearity of the system was better than 0.9990. The system was deployed in the field to perform on-site unattended measurement of ambient methane. The fast cycled measurement facilitated detailed observation of diurnal concentration variation caused by temperature inversion, which could induce nearly two-fold of concentration enhancement.
ISSN:0003-2670
1873-4324
DOI:10.1016/S0003-2670(01)01316-2