Diagnostic gas monitoring process utilizing an expert system

Claim 1

A process for the continuous analysis of trace contaminates in a process gas selected from the group consisting of O 2 , N, Ar and H 2 and for identifying, storing and recording data representative of such trace contaminants in said process gas, for analyzing the stored data to identify erroneous analysis data and for identifying remedial actions to remedy the conditions causing said erroneous analysis comprising the steps of: sampling said process gas to provide a stream of sample gas; passing said stream of sample gas through a plurality of analyzers to determine the presence of one or more trace contaminants selected from the group consisting of O 2 , H 2 , CO, CO 2 , hydrocarbons water moisture (H 2 O) and particulate matter, with such selection being distinct from the selection of said process gas; generating an output signal from each analyzer corresponding to the level of impurity for each trace contaminant under investigation; generating a status signal representative of preselected parameters of analyzer operation corresponding to the operating status of one or more of said analyzers; transferring said status signals and said output signals to a computer for storage in the form of data values; analyzing said data values for the existence of a problem using an expert system rule base program consisting of a multiplicity of rules arranged to form statements corresponding to different problems; executing said rule base program using an expert system shell with each problem recognized when said data values fall outside defined limits or are not present; storing a file of remedial actions for a preselected number of problem conditions; directing said expert system shell to select the examination of said rules in said rule base program in a predetermined hierarchy and in a linear sequence and matching problems identified by execution of said rule base program with one or more preselected remedial actions in said remedial action file.