Outline
The invention relates to a photoacoustic method for determining a non-hydrocarbon component of methane containing gas mixtures. The essential feature of the method is that the photoacoustic absorption spectrum of the gas mixture is recorded in an adequately chosen wavelength range under continuous gas flow then this spectrum is used together with a photoacoustic signal delivered by a reference chamber (3) filled with a gas of defined properties to determine the concentration of the given component in the gas mixture.