Hydrogen and C2–C6 Alkane Sensing in Complex Fuel Gas Mixtures with Fiber-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Power-to-gas is a heavily discussed option to store surplus electricity from renewable sources. Part of the generated hydrogen could be fed into the gas grid and lead to fluctuations in the composition of the fuel gas. Consequently, both operators of transmission networks and end users would need to frequently monitor the gas to ensure safety as well as optimal and stable operation. Currently, gas chromatography-based analysis methods are the state of the art. However, these methods have several downsides for time-resolved and distributed application and Raman gas spectroscopy is favorable for future point-of-use monitoring. Here, we demonstrate that fiber-enhanced Raman gas spectroscopy (FERS) enables the simultaneous detection of all relevant gases, from major (methane, CH4; hydrogen, H2) to minor (C2–C6 alkanes) fuel gas components. The characteristic peaks of H2 (585 cm–1), CH4 (2917 cm–1), isopentane (765 cm–1), i-butane (798 cm–1), n-butane (830 cm–1), n-pentane (840 cm–1), propane (869 cm–1), ethane (993 cm–1), and n-hexane (1038 cm–1) are well resolved in the broadband spectra acquired with a compact spectrometer. The fiber enhancement achieved in a hollow-core antiresonant fiber enables highly sensitive measurements with limits of detection between 90 and 180 ppm for different hydrocarbons. Both methane and hydrogen were quantified with high accuracy with average relative errors of 1.1% for CH4 and 1.5% for H2 over a wide concentration range. These results show that FERS is ideally suited for comprehensive fuel gas analysis in a future, where regenerative sources lead to fluctuations in the composition of gas.