Water determination in pyrolysis gases using calcium carbide

A method for the measurement of water content in a flowing gas has been developed. It consists in passing warm moist gas through a bed of CaC2 where the water vapour is adsorbed and reacts directly with the carbide to form C2H2, which is then analyzed in a gas chromatograph. In this work, water vapour concentrations ranged from 1000 to 13000 ppm at a minimum pressure of 10 bar. The method has also been applied in a number of pyrolysis experiments.