A High-Sensitivity Gas Sensor for Simultaneous Detection of Methane and Ethane in Urban Gas Networks

Authors

  • Zhao Rao southeast university Author
  • Bin Zhou southeast university Author
  • Denghao Zhu southeast university Author
  • Xiao Chen Technology Innovation Center of Safety Operations and Maintenance for Oil and Gas Storage and Transportation Equipment Facilities for Jiangsu Province Market Regulation Author
  • Jingjing Liu Technology Innovation Center of Safety Operations and Maintenance for Oil and Gas Storage and Transportation Equipment Facilities for Jiangsu Province Market Regulation Author
  • Yuan Lv Technology Innovation Center of Safety Operations and Maintenance for Oil and Gas Storage and Transportation Equipment Facilities for Jiangsu Province Market Regulation Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70917/jcc-2025-020

Keywords:

urban natural gas leakage, safety Inspection, dual-component gas, mid-infrared, mobile monitoring

Abstract

To address the challenge of precise discrimination of multi-component trace gases for urban natural gas leakage monitoring, a dual-component gas sensor based on mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy was developed for simultaneous detection of methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6). The sensor integrates an interband cascade laser, a 13-m optical path length multi-pass gas cell and a high-sensitivity detector. The optimal absorption lines of CH4 and C2H6 were identified through analysis of gas absorption spectra, and the negative-pressure (0.24 atm) operation was applied to effectively suppress water vapor interference, which significantly improved the anticross-interference capability. Experimental results demonstrate minimum detection limits of 17.77 parts-per-billion in volume (ppbv) for CH4 and 12.95 ppbv for C2H6 at a 1-second averaging time, and the dynamic response time is approximately 6 s. During the In-vehicle mobile monitoring experiment, the changes of CH4 and C2H6 concentrations near the leakage source show a high degree of correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.9991), which effectively distinguishes natural gas leakage from biogenic and anthropogenic interference sources such as landfills, automobile exhaust. This research provides a high-precision and low-false-alarm solution for the safety inspection of urban gas pipeline networks, and the application scenarios can be further expanded through miniaturization and intelligent optimization in the future.

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Published

2025-09-28 — Updated on 2026-10-11

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Issue

Vol. 11 No. 3 (2025)

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Copyright (c) 2025 Zhao Rao, Bin Zhou, Denghao Zhu, Xiao Chen, Jingjing Liu, Yuan Lv (Author)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

A High-Sensitivity Gas Sensor for Simultaneous Detection of Methane and Ethane in Urban Gas Networks. (2026). Journal of Climate Change, 11(3), 10. https://doi.org/10.70917/jcc-2025-020 (Original work published 2025)