ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief description of the various calorimeter designs used to detect the heating value of gaseous fuels and of waste gases. Calorimeters are instruments that measure the heat value or energy content of gaseous fuels. There are two broad categories of this type of instrument: those that can be considered true calorimeters, which burn the gas and directly measure the heating value, and inferential calorimeters, which analyze the composition of the gas or measure a physical parameter to determine the heat value. The thermopile calorimeter measures the temperature of the hot products of combustion mixed with a constant volume of air supplied by a fan. Thermistors measure the temperature of the water entering and leaving. The sample to the burner is provided with an orifice bypass which is needed for specific gravity compensation; thus, the resulting measurement is in terms of net calorific value.
