Traditionally, absorption spectroscopy has been used in laboratories to perform precise analyses. For production environments, a very robust portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—UV/VIS/NIR—emerged for process analytics.
Absorption spectroscopy is a proven analytical technique
Although NIR data was once considered a challenge to interpret because of broader, overlapping peaks when compared to the IR region, the NIR region is information-rich and has many practical advantages when applied in a process environment. One of these advantages is the reliable performance of online fiber-optic coupled analyzers. The analyzer can be located in a safe environment away from the sample interface (sampling point) which is located in the process stream, thus giving the process engineer or operator simultaneous real-time information for multiple parameters as it occurs within the process. In addition, software tools evolved to make NIR interpretation routine and are performed automatically to provide the actionable information the operator needs. Process analyzer professionals and reliability engineers are now well-experienced in NIR-based analyzer system deployment throughout their plants.
