NATURAL GAS QUALITY SENSOR AND METHOD FOR USING THE SAME

• Main Author: HUNTER, GARY
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 21.10.2015
• Subjects: BLASTING; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TOTRANSPORTATION; COMBUSTION ENGINES; CONTROLLING COMBUSTION ENGINES; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; HEATING; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS; IGNITION, OTHER THAN COMPRESSION IGNITION, FORINTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; LIGHTING; MEASURING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; PHYSICS; SUPPLYING COMBUSTION ENGINES IN GENERAL, WITH COMBUSTIBLEMIXTURES OR CONSTITUENTS THEREOF; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TESTING; TESTING OF IGNITION TIMING IN COMPRESSION-IGNITION ENGINES; WEAPONS

A system for determining a quality of natural gas includes a fuel line (42) for communicating natural gas to an engine (22). An infrared light source (54) is disposed along the fuel line (42) and is configured to emit a beam (50) of infrared light into the fuel line (42) having a wavelength of 6 to 10 micrometers. An infrared light detector (56) detects a transmission value of the natural gas as the beam (50) of infrared light passes through the fuel line (42). Based thereon, a natural gas quality module (68) determines a quality value of the natural gas based on an amount of infrared light absorbed by methane in the natural gas. An engine control module (70), including a feed-forward control loop, receives the quality value from the natural gas quality module (68) and alters an operating parameter of the engine (22) in response thereto.