A novel system for composition analysis in chemical plants at high temperatures and pressures has been developed. The system uses heated capillaries to extract and transport liquid and gaseous samples to a Fourier-Transform-Infrared-Spectrometer (FTIR) for analysis. The samples are extracted from pressure vessels at temperatures ranging from 20 to 190°C and pressures from 5 to 22 bar and analyzed via FTIR with a dead time of 5 to 10 seconds. The system was successfully used to monitor the dehydration reaction of methanol to dimethyl ether in a 170-hour long-term experiment. The system has a measurement range of 1E-4 mol mol-1 to 1 mol mol-1 and is accurate and fast enough for real-time product quality assessment and control in high purity chemical processes where inline measurements are challenging due to harsh environments.
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