New GC to analyze hydrogen

[McCabe]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, and to GC in general.

I would like to measure the contaminants in rather pure hydrogen (higher than 99,5 % I would guess). Mainly CO, CO2, CH4, N2 and higher hydrocarbons (C6, C7), the hydrogen also contains traces of water, according to the FTIR analysis.

I wonder if a Shin Carbon ST column + HID is the way to go (see http://www.restek.com/pdfs/PCTS1472-UNV.pdf Fig. 1). Maybe it needs some kind of pre-column to prevent higher hydrocarbons from entering the Shin Carbon column (another short Shin Carbon?) and an FID, to quantify those.

I would love to hear your opinions, as I'm quite a newbe to GC.

Cheers

[HPLC chemist]

The real question is to what concentration do you want to measure these constituents (ppm or ppb). I have seen labs (Maxxum Analytics?) where microliter injectors were taken off and the gas bags were injected directly (~1 mL).

[McCabe]

Hi,

I would like to measure this components in the ppm range (one digit basically), would be great if I could measure CO down to 0,2 ppm.

[HPLC chemist]

As I recall their results were sub ppm or even ppb.

[Alfonso]

Hi,

My name is Alfonso Madrigal and I work for Advanced Analytical Systems. We specifically provide laboratory support services, such as laboratory instrumentation sales and servicing, monthly maintenance plans including on-site and remote access, troubleshooting and complete instrument repairs, as well as our method development or even our custom laboratory information management systems (LIMS).

AAS specializes in servicing current and older instruments of Varian/Bruker, HP/Agilent, Shimadzu, SRI, and Antek. Our on-site services vary from weekly, monthly and yearly. Additionally, we provide exceptional operator training that improves relations between users and advanced software.

If you have any needs in regard to your laboratory, gas chromatographs, software, or any instrumentation at all, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thank you,

Alfonso Madrigal
E: amadrigal@aasystems.com
P: (562) 852-6071

[Ian_R]

Alfonso,

I just looked at all your posts. They are essentially identical, do not answer the question asked, and plug your company. In my book that's just worthless spam. I'm surprised this forum allows it.

Best
Ian

Hi,

My name is Alfonso Madrigal and I work for Advanced Analytical Systems. We specifically provide laboratory support services, such as laboratory instrumentation sales and servicing, monthly maintenance plans including on-site and remote access, troubleshooting and complete instrument repairs, as well as our method development or even our custom laboratory information management systems (LIMS).

AAS specializes in servicing current and older instruments of Varian/Bruker, HP/Agilent, Shimadzu, SRI, and Antek. Our on-site services vary from weekly, monthly and yearly. Additionally, we provide exceptional operator training that improves relations between users and advanced software.

If you have any needs in regard to your laboratory, gas chromatographs, software, or any instrumentation at all, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thank you,

Alfonso Madrigal
E: amadrigal@aasystems.com
P: (562) 852-6071

[AICMM]

McCabe,

Just configured a GC for CO,CO2,N2, O2 and C1 in hydrogen. Not as simple as you might think. Couple of comments. 1)backflush of the water is necessity since you do not want it to get on the sieve. 2) ShinCarbon does not resolve the O2/N2 all that well and may not get you clear of the H2. 3) PPM levels means at least 5 9's hydrogen. 4) May want to consider de-hydro configuration. CO at sub-ppm could be interesting since it is a late eluter (broader peak makes S/N more challenging.)

The configuration I used was a PP pre-column with backflush to vent with a bypass valve for a downstream sieve.

Happy to discuss it further with you if you want to slog through my opinions!

Best regards,

Aicmm at flash dot net