This year, ABB celebrates 85 years of the technology that revolutionised gas analysis and emissions monitoring in chemical plants and refineries, the pulp, paper and metal industries, power generation, cement, and other industries.
In 1938, URAS was the first gas analyser that could inspect the composition of industrial emissions in real time.
When it was launched in 1938, URAS was known as the first ‘ultra red absorption recorder’ (in German, Ultra Rot Absorptions Schreiber), a continuous gas analyser that could instantly measure the concentration of more than 100 gases through infrared spectroscopy (light absorption technology).
Ben Goossens of ABB Measurement & Analytics says, “This technology was truly revolutionary from the day it was invented. Today, it is a benchmark for uncompromising environmental compliance. With URAS, numerous industrial companies around the world can monitor emissions and help to safeguard the environment.”
URAS is used by industrial companies as a solution in ensuring environmental compliance. With its unrivalled monitoring uptime, the technology enables the continuous monitoring of gases from industrial chimneys. It is also used to measure emissions from marine vessels, helping shipping companies comply with environmental regulations.
As a continuous gas analyser, URAS has a wide range of applications beyond the industrial sectors – in healthcare for instance, measuring the CO2 levels in diagnostic breath tests, and in agri-processing, supporting the process of ripening bananas during shipment by analysing the concentration of ethylene.
In 1996, URAS was used as a foundation in ABB’s groundbreaking Advance Optima modular analyser, which unified the operation for all types of gas analysers in a single design. With this, URAS became the first network analyser with its own IP address. It marked the beginning of digitalisation of analyser technology.
“Decades before the Internet of Things, URAS communicated digitally. Today, it’s all about the digital transformation and in analyser technology, this is where it all started,” says Goossens.
URAS was created by German engineers Erwin Lehrer and Karl Friedrich Luft. In 1988, the technology was further improved by adding gas-filled calibration cells. Because it no longer needed high-pressure test gas cylinders, the cost of operation dropped significantly and the technology became easier to use.
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