Rapid, sensitive hydrogen detector

1. A method for detecting molecular hydrogen, comprising:

receiving sample gas that includes ambient water vapor and hydrogen;

passing the sample gas through a gas dryer;

chemically converting hydrogen in the sample gas to water vapor to produce converted sample gas;

passing the converted sample gas to a water vapor monitoring cell;

measuring water vapor in the converted sample gas in the water vapor monitoring cell to produce a water vapor signal;

separating the water vapor signal in the time domain into an ambient water vapor signal that measures ambient water vapor in the water vapor monitoring cell and a hydrogen-derived water vapor signal that measures hydrogen-derived water vapor in the water vapor monitoring cell, wherein the gas dryer dampens variation in the ambient water vapor signal and the dampening facilitates the separating by differentiating the ambient water vapor signal from the hydrogen-derived water vapor signal that varies more rapidly; and

outputting a hydrogen signal that describes molecular hydrogen in the sample gas that is based on the hydrogen-derived water vapor signal.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gas dryer is a sulfonated tetrafluoroethylene based fluoropolymer-copolymer membrane gas dryer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the chemically converting is performed by heating the sample gas in a catalytic oven.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the measuring water vapor comprises:

optically detecting water vapor in the converted sample gas to produce the water vapor signal.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the optically detecting is performed using laser spectroscopy or non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) absorption spectroscopy.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

modulating the hydrogen-derived water vapor signal,

wherein the separating the ambient water vapor signal and the hydrogen-derived water vapor signal in the time domain is facilitated by the modulation of the hydrogen-derived water vapor signal.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the modulating further comprises:

dividing the sample gas after passing the sample gas through the gas dryer into a chemical conversion flow and a bypass flow; and

alternating between measuring water vapor in just the chemical conversion flow in the water vapor monitoring cell or just the bypass flow in the water vapor monitoring cell to produce the water vapor signal.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

humidifying the sample gas to a predetermined relative humidity prior to passing the sample gas through the gas dryer.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

suppressing hydrogen bearing molecules in the sample gas by trapping the hydrogen bearing molecules using at least one of a filter material, membrane, molecular sieve, or cryogenic trap.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

suppressing hydrogen bearing molecules in the sample gas by tuning the chemical conversion to selectively oxidize hydrogen while avoiding conversion of hydrogen bearing molecules to water vapor.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

compensating for hydrogen bearing molecules in the sample gas by measuring hydrogen bearing molecule concentrations in the sample gas, calculating an amount of hydrogen bearing molecule-derived water vapor based on the measured hydrogen bearing molecule concentrations, and subtracting out hydrogen bearing molecule-derived water vapor from the water vapor signal.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

measuring air movement; and

determining hydrogen eddy covariance flux based on correlation between the measurement of air movement and the water vapor signal.

13. A molecular hydrogen detector, comprising:

an inlet configured to receive sample gas that includes ambient water vapor and hydrogen;

a gas dyer having a segment configured to receive sample gas from the inlet and to dampen variation of ambient water vapor in the sample gas;

a catalytic oven configured to receive the sample gas from the gas dryer and to chemically convert hydrogen in the sample gas to water vapor to produce converted sample gas;

a water vapor monitoring cell configured to measure water vapor in the converted sample gas in the water vapor monitoring cell to produce a water vapor signal; and

a processor configured to separate the water vapor signal in the time domain into an ambient water vapor signal that measures ambient water vapor in the water vapor monitoring cell and a hydrogen-derived water vapor signal that measures hydrogen-derived water vapor in the water vapor monitoring cell, wherein separation is facilitated by the dampening of variation of the ambient water vapor in the sample gas which differentiates the ambient water vapor signal from the hydrogen-derived water vapor signal, and to output a hydrogen signal that is based on the hydrogen-derived water vapor signal to describe molecular hydrogen in the sample gas.

14. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 , wherein the gas dryer is a sulfonated tetrafluoroethylene based fluoropolymer-copolymer membrane gas dryer.

15. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 ,

wherein the water vapor monitoring cell comprises a laser spectrometer or a non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) absorption spectrometer.

16. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 , further comprising:

a flow controller disposed between the catalytic oven and water vapor monitoring cell and configured to reduce pressure of the converted sample gas; and

a vacuum pump configured to pull sample gas through the gas dyer, catalytic oven and water vapor monitoring cell.

17. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 , further comprising:

a flow divider disposed after the gas dyer and the catalytic oven configured to divide the sample gas into a chemical conversion flow that is passed to the catalytic oven and a bypass flow that bypasses the catalytic oven;

a first valve configured to selectively direct the chemical conversion flow after having passed through the catalytic oven to either the water vapor monitoring cell or to bypass the water vapor monitoring cell; and

a second flow valve configured to selectively direct the bypass flow to either the water vapor monitoring cell or to bypass the water vapor monitoring cell,

wherein the processor is configured to activate and deactivate the first valve and the second valve to cause the water vapor monitoring cell to alternate between measuring water vapor in just the chemical conversion flow or just the bypass flow to produce the water vapor signal.

18. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 , further comprising:

a humidifier configured to bring the sample gas to a predetermined relative humidity.

19. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 , further comprising:

a filter material, membrane, molecular sieve, or cryogenic trap configured to suppress hydrogen bearing molecules in the sample gas.

20. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 , wherein the catalytic oven is configured to selectively oxidize hydrogen while avoiding conversion of hydrogen bearing molecules to water vapor.

21. The molecular hydrogen detector of claim 13 , further comprising:

a monitor configured to measure hydrogen bearing molecule concentrations in the sample gas,

wherein the processor is configured to compensate for hydrogen bearing molecules in the sample gas by calculating an amount of hydrogen bearing molecule-derived water vapor based on the measured hydrogen bearing molecule concentrations and subtracting out hydrogen bearing molecule-derived water vapor from the water vapor signal.