Measuring the enthalpy of combustion of methane gas and establishing the model function to perform comprehensive uncertainty calculations

Natural gas is a plentiful and adaptable energy source among other gases that is used all over the world with an increasing demand nowadays. It is therefore of utmost importance to measure the energy content of the natural gas with high precision for both users and sellers. In this study, methane gas, the main component of natural gas, was combusted using the reference gas calorimeter developed at TUBITAK UME (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) - (National Metrology Institute) to determine the enthalpy of combustion. The objective was to measure the enthalpy of combustion of the methane, perform a detailed uncertainty calculation and to compare the enthalpy of combustion of the methane specified in ISO 6976:2016 with the obtained experimental results. The reference gas calorimeter was designed using the temperature, mass, power, flow control, waste water absorption, and waste gas measurement systems with the highest precision and circulating water bath with temperature control insulated so as not to exchange heat from the external environment. All measurements were performed with the instruments having calibration certificates. Experiments were carried out at the temperature of 298.15 K and a constant pressure (101.325 kPa) using the methane with a purity of 99.995 % as a reference gas. The mass of the burnt methane in combustion process was approximately 10-3 kg. As a consequence of the measurements, mean experimental enthalpy of combustion was obtained as -55518.2 kJ kg(-1) with the error of 0.2 % (k = 2). The evaluations indicated that the largest source of error in the enthalpy of combustion measurements originated from the temperature and mass measurements.

Automated summary

In this study, the enthalpy of combustion of methane, the main component of natural gas, was measured using a reference gas calorimeter. The experimental results were compared with the values specified in ISO 6976:2016. The average enthalpy of combustion was determined as -55518.2 kJ kg-1 with an error of 0.2%.