Optical determination and reporting of hydrocarbon properties

摘要

A chemical composition analyzer may be used to optically determine and report chemical compositions associated with natural gases within a gas collection and transmission infrastructure. This analyzer includes a number of optical sensors which may be used to perform spectroscopic spectrographic analysis in order to determine the chemical composition of the natural gas. Additionally other sensors may be used to measure other physical properties associated with the natural gas. These sensors are tied to a data collection system wherein the output of the optical sensors and sensors used to measure the physical properties of the natural gas may be combined and processed in order to determine in a nearly continuous fashion the chemical composition associated with the natural gas at various locations within the gas collection and transmission infrastructure. This real time compositional analysis may be used to determine valuations of the gas or to optimize other processes or equipment configurations.

主权项

1. A method to optically determine and report a chemical composition of a hydrocarbon comprising:
measuring the chemical composition of the natural gas within a gas collection and transmission infrastructure with optical sensors operable to scan the natural gas with all or substantially all of the range between 1300 nm and 2500 nm of the electromagnetic spectrum with a tunable light source; measuring other physical properties associated with the natural gas within the gas collection and transmission infrastructure; communicatively coupling the optical sensors to a data gathering location; reporting the chemical composition of the natural gas and the other physical properties associated with the natural gas to the data gathering location; and determining in real time the chemical composition associated with bulk quantities of natural gas within the gas collection and transmission infrastructure.