Use of laboratory-supplied natural gas in breakthrough phenomena

Abstract

Discussion of breakthrough phenomenon and an experiment to identify the organic compounds present in natural gas through gas chromatography.

High molecular weight hydrocarbons including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in natural gas from consumer distribution pipelines and in pipeline residue

“…These differences are not particularly surprising since samples were drawn with gas supplied from different gas fields or from different locations along a pipeline from the same gas field. Moreover, certain volatile (C5-C3) organic compounds including benzene and alkylated benzenes which were found in trap extracts may have been lost largely through breakthrough phenomenon (3) or by volatilization during condensation of extract using rotary evaporation. For example, breakthrough volumes for the following compounds on Tenax-GC traps in methane carrier were estimated from earlier data (3) as the following: C12H26, 45 L/g; C16H34,135 L/g; C13H33,450 L/g; CjgH^, 1080 L/g.…”

“…While natural gas is comprised of several major components such as methane, ethane, propane, C02, N2, H2S, and others, a complex mixture of organic compounds with molecular weights larger than these compounds has also been detected in natural gas samples from the U.S. and several other countries (2-6). These compounds were found at concentrations near 100 mg/m3 and with molecular weights up to 400 amu for as many as 50 components in concentrated gas condensate (3). The presence of these same compounds in aqueous wastes from natural gas transportation (7,8) was evidence that such compounds also may be widely distributed in consumer distribution pipelines.…”