ABSTRACT
The heats of combustion of gaseous hydrocarbons are presently determined by using a constant pressure flame calorimeter. However, calorimetric measurements cannot be made on-line and require information about the thermal properties of the combustion products of the test sample. The m/n ratio is directly related to the heats of combustion of the saturated hydrocarbons present in the natural gas. A measurement of the m/n ratio for the test gas can provide a direct means of determination of its heat of combustion by using the calibration graph relating the m/n values for pure saturated hydrocarbons with their heats of combustion. A depends only on the composition of the test gas and the mole fraction of oxygen in the air used for combustion. The test gas flowrates were calculated by using a flowrate conversion factor computed on the basis of known test gas composition.
