In this interview, industry experts Kathy Rosalina and Ethan Borchelt explain how integrated Raman and flow computing improve natural gas monitoring, energy calculations, and operational visibility.
To get started, can you explain the key role natural gas monitoring plays and why it is so important across the gas value chain?
Kathy Rosalina: Natural gas monitoring is important because gas composition and energy value measurements are critical across upstream, midstream, and downstream operations. These measurements are used in applications such as natural gas production, LNG transportation, petrochemical processing, custody transfer, and critical process monitoring.
Historically, gas chromatography has been the dominant technology for these measurements because of its compositional accuracy and industry acceptance. However, traditional GC-based workflows can require significant supporting infrastructure, including sample-conditioning systems, carrier gases, heated sample lines, pressure regulation, vaporizers for LNG applications, and frequent calibration and maintenance.
In many custody transfer or critical monitoring applications, operators also install two GC systems at a single measurement point: a primary and a backup analyzer. This helps maintain uptime and regulatory confidence, but it also increases complexity.
As a result, the analyzer package can become one of the most maintenance-intensive parts of the measurement system.
What are the limitations of traditional GC-based natural gas monitoring workflows?
Kathy Rosalina: Traditional GC-based workflows are effective, but they can become complex, maintenance-intensive, and relatively slow to respond to changing process conditions. A typical midstream architecture often involves several separate analyzer and integration layers, along with supporting infrastructure that must be maintained over time.
Another important consideration is redundancy. Since GC systems require regular maintenance and periodic downtime, many operators install a secondary backup GC at each measurement point. This adds cost and complexity, even though it is often necessary to maintain continuous operation and regulatory confidence.
As the industry evaluates alternative measurement technologies, process Raman analyzers are increasingly considered a complementary technology. In some cases, they may also serve as a potential replacement for the secondary redundant GC.
The goal is to simplify the architecture, reduce maintenance, support faster deployment, and improve remote operational visibility.
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How does Raman spectroscopy enable real-time natural gas monitoring?
Kathy Rosalina: Raman spectroscopy enables real-time natural gas monitoring by using laser excitation and molecular vibrational signatures to determine gas composition.
Unlike GC, Raman does not physically separate molecules. Instead, the laser light is directed into the process stream through a fiber-optic probe or flow cell.
As light interacts with molecules in the sample, molecular vibrations generate Raman-scattered light. That scattered light travels back through the optics into the analyzer, where a Raman spectrum is collected. This spectrum acts as a molecular fingerprint of the sample composition.
Chemometric models are then applied to convert spectral information into real-time predictions of composition and properties. There is no molecular separation step, so Raman can analyze the process stream directly. This simplifies the measurement process, reduces workflow complexity, and enables much faster updates than traditional analyzer methods.
What are the key features of the MarqMetrix All-In-One X Process Raman Analyzer?
Kathy Rosalina: The MarqMetrix All-In-One X Process Raman Analyzer is a real-time, nondestructive compositional analyzer designed for industrial gas applications. It was engineered for industrial process environments and offers minimal maintenance, low total cost of ownership, and the ability to measure multiple compositions and properties with a single device.
One important advantage is model transferability. Because the analyzer eliminates the need for hardware calibration, models developed on one analyzer can be transferred and used across the fleet. This helps simplify deployment, standardization, and scaling across multiple sites.
The platform was also designed for hazardous process areas commonly found in oil and gas operations, meeting ATEX Zone 0, IECEx, and Class 1 Division 1 requirements.
Its compact footprint allows it to be installed much closer to the process than many traditional analyzer systems, reducing supporting infrastructure requirements. The solid-state 785 nanometer Raman laser supports stable, low-maintenance operation and model portability across analyzers.
What types of gas and liquid hydrocarbon applications can process Raman support?
Kathy Rosalina: Process Raman has broad analytical flexibility across both gas and liquid hydrocarbon applications. For natural gas, LNG, and NGL streams, it can measure components such as methane, ethane, propane, nitrogen (N), hydrogen (H), and other relevant gases. In addition to composition, Raman can calculate derived properties such as BTU and specific gravity in real time.
On the downstream liquid side, the same Raman platform can support measurements for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined products. It can also provide information on properties such as octane, API gravity, vapor pressure, and distillation characteristics.
This flexibility is valuable because operators can use one analytical platform across multiple applications, rather than relying on several separate analyzer systems. It also supports faster process visibility, reduced operational burden, and more consistent workflows across different parts of the hydrocarbon value chain.
Why is process Raman useful for LNG monitoring?
Kathy Rosalina: Process Raman is useful for LNG monitoring because, unlike conventional LNG GC, it enables direct liquid-phase LNG analysis without vaporization. During the LNG GC process, lighter and heavier hydrocarbon components can fractionate, which may affect measurement accuracy if conditions are not tightly controlled.
Raman offers a different approach by allowing direct analysis of LNG in the liquid phase. This can be especially valuable for LNG terminal operations and custody transfer quality monitoring, where accurate and timely composition data is important.
ASTM D7940 is also an important industry milestone because it establishes a standardized methodology for LNG analysis using fiber-coupled Raman spectroscopy. The standard supports both online process measurement and laboratory analysis.
The measured composition data can then be used to calculate important fuel properties, showing growing industry recognition of Raman spectroscopy as a viable analytical technology for LNG monitoring and custody transfer support applications.
How does the MarqMetrix All-In-One X integrate with the AutoFLEX Flow Computer?
Kathy Rosalina: The integrated workflow begins with the MarqMetrix All-In-One X Process Raman Analyzer, which measures natural gas composition in real time. That composition data is then transmitted through Modbus communications to the AutoFLEX Flow Computer.
The AutoFLEX receives the live component data and performs standardized calculations, including flow computation, energy calculations, and operational management. AutoCONFIG then provides remote visualization and operational monitoring, giving operators a clearer view of gas composition, system status, and measurement performance.
A key operational advantage is that the Raman analyzer performs the spectral processing and prediction internally. This allows AutoFLEX to focus on flow computation and operational management.
Using Modbus communication, registers can be mapped directly to individual gas components and derived properties, allowing composition data to be pulled efficiently into the AutoFLEX Modbus master map. Setup can generally be completed in minutes rather than hours or days.
What does AutoFLEX bring to the integrated natural gas monitoring workflow?
Ethan Borchelt: AutoFLEX is designed to support measurement, control, and monitoring across a wide range of pipeline and gas applications. One of its major strengths is flexibility. The platform uses a scalable hardware architecture, enabling it to support diverse applications and station sizes.
AutoFLEX also helps modernize operations by providing enhanced processing power, real-time communications, and advanced diagnostics. It incorporates the latest industry measurement standards and calculation methods, helping operators maintain consistency across different sites and applications.
The goal is to maximize operational visibility while simplifying deployment and ongoing management. Within a single integrated architecture, AutoFLEX can support measurement, control, monitoring, and optimization. When combined with process Raman, it helps operators connect faster gas composition measurements with the flow computation and operational data needed for better decision-making.
How does AutoCONFIG support remote monitoring, diagnostics, and operational visibility?
Ethan Borchelt: AutoCONFIG supports system configuration, health monitoring, control functions, reporting, and historical data archiving. One of its key benefits is centralized visibility. Operators can monitor multiple sites and historical trends through a common interface, improving situational awareness and accelerating decision-making.
Remote monitoring is especially valuable because it can reduce site visits and improve safety by minimizing exposure to hazardous environments. Operators can also customize dashboards, displays, and workflows to focus on the measurements and diagnostics that are most relevant to their operations.
The platform also supports tertiary device diagnostics, alarm management, tank alarm limits, communications monitoring, and analyzer health visibility. In the integrated workflow, heartbeat monitoring from the MarqMetrix All-In-One Process Raman Analyzer confirms that communication between the Raman analyzer and the AutoFLEX Flow Computer remains active and healthy.
If communication is interrupted or system issues arise, operators can quickly identify and respond to the problem.
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What is the overall value of combining process Raman with AutoFLEX?
Kathy Rosalina: Combining process Raman with AutoFLEX creates a more unified and efficient architecture for natural gas monitoring.
The Raman analyzer provides real-time compositional analysis, direct in-line measurement, minimal maintenance requirements, model portability, and the ability to measure multiple parameters using a single platform. It also simplifies integration into existing control systems, including the AutoFLEX Flow Computer.
Ethan Borchelt: On the AutoFLEX side, the platform supports real-time Modbus communications, scalable electronic flow measurement, SCADA integration, advanced diagnostics, flexible hardware configurations, and industry-standard custody transfer calculations.
Together, the integrated architecture helps operators modernize natural gas monitoring workflows by improving operational visibility, deployment flexibility, and measurement responsiveness. Instead of waiting several minutes for periodic GC updates, operators gain continuous visibility into changing gas conditions and process dynamics.
This supports faster troubleshooting, better situational awareness, improved operational control, and more informed decision-making.
Ultimately, the goal is to help operators move from delayed measurement workflows toward continuous operational intelligence.
Want to learn more? Watch the full webinar here
About Kathy Rosalina 
Kathy Rosalina holds a Bachelor of Engineering with Honors in Materials Engineering from Nanyang Technological University.
At Thermo Fisher Scientific, she has held Field Application Specialist, Technical Sales Specialist, and Product Applications Engineer roles, supporting handheld Raman and NIR instruments for pharmaceutical applications across Asia Pacific and the United States.
About Ethan Borchelt 
Ethan Borchelt holds a BA in Organizational Studies from Brown University. At Thermo Fisher Scientific, he progressed from Marketing Specialist to Product Manager in the Environmental and Process Monitoring business unit, supporting portfolio marketing, customer research, market trend analysis, and management of the Electronic Flow Meter product portfolio.
This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by Thermo Fisher Scientific – Portable and Handheld Process Raman Spectroscopy.
For more information on this source, please visit Thermo Fisher Scientific – Portable and Handheld Process Raman Spectroscopy.
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