Odor fading in natural gas distribution systems |
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Institution: | 1. School for the Future of Innovation in Society, 800 S. Cady Mall, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;2. Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, 13001 East 17th Place, Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, CO 80045, USA;3. Department of Geography, 302 Walker Building, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA |
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Abstract: | Since natural gas is odorless, to assure the customer safety, odorants are added to it to alarm the consumer in the case of a gas leak. Although the odorization is a common practice in natural gas distribution systems, odor fading has been reported in pipelines, which is a great safety risk. This paper summarizes results of experiments conducted to investigate possible chemical and physical mechanisms responsible for odor fading. In these experiments, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and gas chromatography were used to check the possible interactions of tertiary butyl mercaptan (TBM) as odorant with the pipe material. Evidences of chemisorption, adsorption and desorption of TBM on the iron oxide inside the pipe were observed. It was found that by increasing pressure, rusted surface of the pipe, and temperature or by decreasing the gas flow rate and odorant concentration the mercaptan removal was increased. |
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Keywords: | Odor fading Natural gas Mercaptan Pickling Pipeline TBM |
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