Development of a High-Pressure Bubbling Sampler for Trace Element Quantification in Natural Gas

A high-pressure bubbling sampler has been developed to trap and preconcentrate metals and metalloids from natural gas. This high-pressure sampler was designed to work at pressures up to 100 bar and be directly plugged into distribution and transportation networks. It consists of three vials in series, which contain 50 mL of metal trapping solution and the gas flows at the network pressure with a flow rate up to 40 L/min. The trapping solutions for mercury and other metals are permanganate/sulfuric acid or nitric acid/hydrogen peroxide according to standards EN 13211 and EN 14385. The sampler design, development, and validation steps are presented in this work. First, the trapping vials were tested in the laboratory, where argon gas was spiked with mercury at two different pressures that represented the distribution and transportation networks. The results show that more than 96% of the metal was trapped from the gas phase into the solution for both tested pressures. Moreover, more than 90% of the trapped ...