The PolySense team has just published a new article on ACS Energy&Fuels journal reporting on a compact and portable gas sensor based on quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) for the detection of methane (C1), ethane (C2), and propane (C3) in natural gas (NG)-like mixtures. An interband cascade laser (ICL) emitting at 3367 nm has been employed to target absorption features of the three alkanes, and partial least-squares regression analysis is employed to filter out spectral interferences and matrix effects characterizing the examined gas mixtures. Spectra of methane, ethane, and propane mixtures diluted in nitrogen are employed to train and test the regression algorithm, achieving a prediction accuracy of ∼98%,∼96%, and ∼93% on C1, C2, and C3, respectively. These results enable an improved performance of the sensor for in situ, real-time, and online natural gas composition analysis.
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