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Innovative Industrial Oxygen Analysis Method for Fertilizer Production in Hubei – Author/Source: Sinochem News Network; Date: 2020-08-17; Clicks: 2. Recently, the analysis technician studio at Sinopec Hubei Fertilizer Company used gas chromatography to determine the argon content in the oxygen present in their products. Experimental results show that this method is simple and efficient, with detection results available within 5 minutes; it has high sensitivity, capable of detecting argon at a concentration of 50 ppm in oxygen; and it offers high analytical accuracy, with a relative standard deviation of less than 3% when six parallel measurements are taken on the same sample. The standard analytical method for industrial oxygen uses a copper-ammonia solution to absorb the oxygen in the gas, and the oxygen concentration is determined based on the decrease in gas volume. This method is cumbersome to operate and subject to many interfering factors, which affect the accuracy of analysis and prevent precise determination of the argon content. The members of this studio are focusing on gas chromatography for more widespread applications. To separate oxygen and argon more effectively, they came up with an innovative approach: the gas was first passed through a nickel conversion furnace, where the oxygen in the product was converted into water; thereafter, water and argon were separated in a chromatography column to determine the argon content. Subsequently, they modified the nickel conversion furnace by adding another parallel tube filled with catalyst nickel, and retrieved samples from the site to analyze the argon content in the oxygen product using a chromatograph. Through repeated experiments, they obtained a spectrum of high-purity oxygen, proving the high efficiency of the conversion furnace; the oxygen in the sample was completely converted into water as it passed through the furnace, with an argon content of 0.35%–0.5%, and the detection time was reduced from over 90 minutes to 5 minutes. Hubei Fertilizer’s coal-based gas production utilizes the technology of oxidizing pulverized coal with pure oxygen, and a large amount of industrial oxygen is obtained through air separation via the cryogenic method. Since the boiling points of oxygen and argon are close to each other, impurities of argon inevitably mix in during the production of pure oxygen. This results in a decrease in the concentration of the useful components in the syngas in the ammonia synthesis tower during powder coal gasification, thereby increasing energy consumption. Therefore, accurately determining the argon content in the oxygen of the product is of great significance for guiding process optimization and ensuring the optimal operation of the equipment.