Design and characterization of a Raman-scattering-based sensor system for temporally resolved gas analysis and its application in a gas turbine power plant

A sensor system for fast gas composition analysis is presented. Using linear Raman scattering the simultaneous detection of virtually all components of fuel gas mixtures such as natural gas and biogas can be achieved. The system consists of commercially available hardware components, in detail a frequency doubled continuous wave laser at 532 nm and a compact spectrometer with an embedded charge coupled device chip. For the evaluation of the Raman spectra a fast software module based on a contour fit algorithm is developed. Moreover, modules for controlling the hardware components are implemented in the sensor software ensuring simple operability of the entire system. In this paper the sensor is characterized in terms of, e.g., accuracy, reproducibility, detection limits and temporal performance. Finally its application for natural gas analysis in a gas turbine power plant is demonstrated, and the results obtained are compared to gas chromatography results.