Saving gas — because you know your detector will light!

Introducing FidIG (patent pending)

FidIG is a very simple modification to a chimney of an Agilent™ GC that ensures that, when asked to ignite, the FID will light. Every single time.

How Does it Work?

The principle is straightforward. When the flows to the FID are turned on, FidIG will direct enough of the flow towards the glow plug that the glow pug will ignite a portion of the gases and flashback to the jet. It is the physical equivalent of puffing on the detector but it can be done without singing the eyebrows.

Why Would I Use It?

For instruments that are not used for an extensive part of a shift, say instruments that might run part of today and part of tomorrow, FidIG will allow you to turn off the FID (s) at the end of the sequence and then re-light the FID just before you start your sequence tomorrow. This means no hydrogen consumption, no air consumption, no make-up gas consumption. The FID can stay hot, the start up time is about a minute, and you can save 10, 12, 14 hours of gas consumption. The savings can be considerable depending on the actual running time of the instrument.

When Would I Not Use It?

If the instrument is running a large portion of the shift, then it may not make sense to use a FidIG. A refinery gas instrument running samples all throughout the day and evening is one example of this. (You might still want to install one, just to make sure that if it goes out in the middle of the night, the technician does not have to call you for help getting the FID to re-light.)

How Much Can I save?

There’s a spreadsheet for that! (Click here)

Your savings will depend on uptime, the number of FIDs running, flow rates, and the cost of gas. Let’s just say that if your instrument runs 30-40% of the day, your breakeven point is about 1-3 months for cylinder based instruments. That may be even quicker if you use helium as a make-up. FidIG will be saving you money from here on out in 3 months. The more GC’s you put it one, especially ones that are idle for a portion of every shift, the more money you save.

What’s the Catch?

There are two “steps” in implementing FidIG. The first is the physical installation which is based on a series of chimney exchanges. Takes about 10 minutes per FID, twice. Once for the loaner, once for your modified, returned chimney. The second is that you have to build a Sleep and Awake method, takes about 5 minutes, to build both methods and insert them into your sequences. That’s it.

It is a simple question really…

“How much money could I save if I turned off my FID when it is not running samples?”

The problem is, you want to know that when you ask it to turn back on, later today or tomorrow, that it will light. But if it did, you could really cut down on gas flows and probably save quite a bit of money on that.

What keeps you from doing it? Not knowing the FID will light? If you’re still not convinced, contact us today!