Thermo Electron Corporation announces a new carbon dioxide analyser for the natural gas industry, known as the AutoCO2, to maintain natural gas quality control at delivery points
Thermo Electron Corporation, an industry leading producer of process instrumentation for the oil and gas industries, announced today its new carbon dioxide analyser for the natural gas industry known as the AutoCO2. The AutoCO2 measures carbon dioxide concentrations in natural gas to maintain gas quality control at delivery points. With natural gas prices at all-time highs, limits on CO2 levels are being set at specific delivery points and exceeding these limits can result in fines or lost production.

To ensure compliance with the limits, the Thermo AutoCO2, used in conjunction with Thermo Autopilot or Automate gas flow computers, provides well and pipeline control to the producer, gathering station operator or transmission line technician.

Furthermore, multiple AutoCO2 units can be installed on several incoming lines to monitor, blend or restrict certain production runs to the gathering station.

'The AutoCO2 is a smart and affordable way to monitor carbon dioxide at the wellsite or gathering station - for a fraction of the cost of gas chromatography,' noted Margo Myers, the Thermo petroleum market manager.

The Thermo AutoCO2 detects CO2 in natural gas using non-dispersive infrared technology (NDIR).

The basic principle of operation is to detect the amount of energy at a specific wavelength that is absorbed by passing natural gas between the infrared optics and sensor.

The amount of energy absorbed is directly proportional to the concentration of the simple target and the path length for the energy.

Also, the 'intelligence' to log data, alarm and control well functions stay in the flow computer and is not duplicated in the sensor, allowing a very cost-effective monitoring method.

Effectively controlling the CO2 concentration on individual lines may prevent shutting in the entire station.

The AutoCO2 is easily installed at the meter run by utilising a sample probe with regulator.

With the flow-through design, a scant 0.5 litres-per-minute of natural gas can be vented to the atmosphere or can be used by another analyser.

Key product features.

* Flow-through style.

* Range 0-10 percent.

* 4-20 mA output.

* Accuracy +/-5 percent relative or +/-0.2 percent, whichever is greater.

* Repeatability +/-0.1 percent CO2 concentration.

* Class 1, Div 2, (Group C, D) UL, cUL (approvals pending).

For more information on the AutoCO2 please visit the website.