Probing natural gas components with Raman integrating sphere technology.

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful method of probing natural gas components, but higher sensitivity, greater miniaturization, and lower cost techniques are required. Therefore, we designed a Raman integrating sphere-enhanced spectroscopy technology in a volume of 40 × 40 × 20 cm based on the principle of integrating sphere reflection. This technology consists of two parts: the first is an integrating sphere model to collect scattered signals, and the second is a right-angle light-boosting system to increase the optical path of the pump light in the sample. Raman integrating sphere technology has a detection limit of 0.5 ppm in the air with an exposure time of 600 s under room temperature and ambient pressure conditions. Experiments of natural gas detection display that the detection limits of ethane, propane, n-butane, isobutane, n-pentane, and isopentane are 28, 28, 95, 28, 189, and 95 ppm, respectively. In addition, there is a linear relationship between the relative Raman intensity and the concentration of each component in natural gas, which can be used as a probe for detecting unknown natural gas components in gas wells.