Real-Time Monitoring of Trace Gas Concentrations in Syngas

A Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS) was used for the analysis of syngas in an industrial Fischer-Tropsch process. A PTR-MS can detect a variety of volatile organic and inorganic compounds in real-time and with high sensitivity. Together with a multiplexer, this allows for online (real-time) monitoring of the trace contaminations at different stages of a Fischer-Tropsch process. Several volatile compounds, such as HCN, H 2 S, RSH, carbonyls, acids, alcohols and others have been measured in Syngas. This paper describes the setup to monitor syngas using PTR-MS and summarizes the result of this proof-of-principle project.