Comparison of four analytical methods of water content in natural gas.

The four analytical methods of water content determination in natural gas, such as Laser method, capacitance method, fiber-optic method and quartz- crystal oscilation method, are worth promoting in natural gas industry due to simple operation and maintenance. These methods are about to be implemented as the standard to determine water content in natural gas in China. In order to guide the user of those methods to operate correctly, the comparison research about the operation Characteristics of the four methods are taken by experiment. There search content includes the factors of affect method accuracy, stability, and detecting speed. The research results show that the main factors affecting method accuracy are test temperature, pressure and gas flow, etc., and the accuracy of the fiber-optic method is also related to the carbon dioxide content. The capacitance method is poor in stability, so it needs for frequent calibration. As inadequate measurement time will produce in accurate measurement results, the appropriate measurement time of these methods should be determined by respective detecting speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]