Spie – Scientific Paper – Methane and Ethane trace detection University: Polysense Lab, Politecnico di Bari, Photonics Research Group, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Rice University.Authors: Sgobba, Fabrizio, Menduni, Giansergio, Sampaolo, Angelo, Patimisco, Pietro, Giglio, MarilenaJournal: Spie Digital Library TITLE: Fiber-coupled quartz-enhanced photoacoustic sensor for methane and ethane trace detection. ABSTRACT: In oil and gas exploration and environmental monitoring fields is extremely important to rely on versatile and rugged trace gas sensors that can be mounted on remote-controlled unmanned vehicles to monitor dangerous areas inaccessible to a human operator. Thereby, a compact fiber-coupled dual-gas QEPAS sensor employing a custom tuning fork was designed and tested. Two distributed feedback pigtailed diode lasers emitting at 1654 nm and 1684 nm, for methane and ethane detection respectively, were also employed. The gas sensor was calibrated for ethane and methane trace detection and a minimum detection level of 18 parts per million and 570 parts per billion at 1 s integration time were respectively achieved. Methane detection in atmosphere was also performed. FULL AND ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER: SPIE 1 March 2020 Recent News