Exploring interaction effects in two-component gas mixtures using orthogonal signal correction of ultrasound pulses

Within Sweden and the EU, an increased use of biogas gas and natural gas is encouraged to decrease emission of carbon dioxide. To support more effective manufacturing, distribution, and consumption of energy gases, new methods for the measurement of the calorimetric value or the gas composition are needed. This paper presents a method to extract and visualize variations in ultrasound pulse shape, caused by interaction effects between the constituents of a two-component gas mixture. The method is based on a combination of principal component analysis and orthogonal signal correction. Pulse-echo ultrasound experiments on mixtures of oxygen and ethane in the concentration range from 20% to 80% ethane show that the extracted information could be correlated with the molar fraction of ethane in the mixture.