Most Common Analyzer Failures (Field Reality)
This section documents the most frequent analyzer failures seen in real industrial plants. These are not textbook faults — they are issues repeatedly observed across biogas plants, refineries, power plants, and CEMS installations.
Failure Categories (Start Here)
💧 Moisture & Condensation
Liquid water entering analyzers due to poor conditioning, blocked drains, or heater failures.
🧪 Sampling System Failures
Leaks, blockages, wrong materials, or neglected filters upstream of analyzers.
⚙️ Utility Issues
Instrument air, power supply, carrier gas, grounding, or UPS problems.
🧠 Calibration & Drift
Over-calibration, poor gas quality, ignored drift trends, and audit failures.
🔌 Electronics & Communication
Power fluctuations, grounding issues, signal mismatch, and DCS communication loss.
🌡️ Environment & Installation
Heat, dust, vibration, corrosion, poor shelter design, and HVAC failures.
Gold Tier – Real Plant Case Studies
Actual failures observed in operating plants. Each case documents symptoms, root cause, and permanent corrective action.
CEMS Audit Failure
Analyzer healthy but failed statutory audit due to calibration discipline and documentation gaps.
GC Carrier Gas Contamination
Retention time drift and unstable chromatograms caused by contaminated carrier gas.
Shelter Overheating (Summer Failure)
Random analyzer trips and drift caused by undersized shelter HVAC during summer.