Applications for different methods of energy and heating value measurements. (30p.)

The gas standards manufactured today by the Gravimetric method are superior in all respects to those blended by other means. This may be seen by comparing the theoretical heating value as predicted by the manufacturer with the values found by testing the gases using both gas chromatography and Stocheometric combustion. It is shown that for gases with wide variations in composition, BTU measurement using Stocheometric combustion is comparable or preferred to Gas Chromatography. The Therm Titrator, which implements the Stocheometric Combustion method of BTU analysis, has an advantage of extreme speed of response to changes in heating value. The Therm Titrator requires no prior knowledge of the gas being tested as an unknown beyond O2 and H2 content A high quality gas chromatograph is shown to be an appropriate method of BTU measurement as long as all components of interest are analyzed. The gas chromatograph has an advantage of excellent stability and lends itself well in application where absolute speed of response is considered less important than high resolution of specific gas composition. Both methods of heating value determination are shown to be extremely accurate when the investigator, the equipment manufacturer, and the supplier of the calibration standard function together.