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Praxair and ProCeas® for the CO2 ppb measurement in Syngas.
Mr Luke Coleman, Sr. Process Engineer at Praxair Inc, talks about his experience integrating AP2E products…
Can you introduce Praxair and your activity?
Luke Coleman: Praxair Inc. is a US-based, Fortune 500 industrial and specialty gas company with 26,000 employees in more than 50 countries that are working together towards a common goal: making our planet more productive. As a Senior Researcher in Praxair’s HyCO and Adsorption R&D group, I develop novel purification processes and support plant operations.
What problem brought Praxair to consider the ProCeas® as the preferred analytical solution?
LC : In Praxair’s HyCO plants, high-purity hydrogen and carbon monoxide are produced by the cryogenic distillation of syngas gas – that is, a gas mixture consisting of H2, CO, and CH4. Trace quantities of CO2 and H2O in the syngas feed stream can ‘freeze-up’ the cryogenic distillation equipment leading to plant outage and disruption in service that can last several days. Measurement of trace levels of CO2 monitors the performance of upstream purification equipment and provides operators with early indication of potential issues. Accurate and reliable measurement of trace levels (i.e., < 100 ppb) of CO2 in syngas is particularly challenging due to the very low concentrations of CO2 and the complexity of the syngas matrix. The ProCeas® analyzer provides direct and instantaneous measurement of trace levels of CO2 without interference from the primary components.
What ultimately led you to select the ProCeas® versus other technologies?
LC: Although trace measurement of CO2 in process gas streams is not novel, the ProCeas® analyzer provides direct and instantaneous measurement of trace levels of CO2 without interference from the primary components in syngas – H2, CO, and CH4, which can be an issue for other technologies. Due to the absence of matrix interference, the ProCeas® analyzer was found to have an LDL of < 10 ppb CO2 both in lab and plant settings using real process gas. In addition, the ProCeas® analyzer was found to be very stable requiring very infrequent calibration and user interaction. Further, ap2e’s technical team has been engaged from day one and has provided great technical support at all stages of ownership.
In which context do you use the ProCeas®?
LC: At Praxair, we use the ProCeas® analyzer in both R&D and operations settings to monitor the performance syngas purification processes through the accurate and reliable measurement of trace levels of CO2.
Luke Coleman, PhD
Sr. Process Engineer – HyCO R&D
Praxair, Inc.
Tonawanda, NY
