Humidity Sensors for Industrial Applications

It could be argued that humidity plays a part in every industrial production process. The very fact
that our own atmosphere contains water vapour bears witness to this fact even if it is only that
the end product is likely to be stored and eventually used in our environment; therefore, the
product’s potential performance under varying conditions of humidity must be known. The
extent to which humidity plays a part in any given production process may vary but in many
cases it is essential that, at the very least, it is monitored and, in most cases, controlled. It may
also be said that humidity is a more difficult property to define and measure than associated
parameters such as temperature and pressure. Indeed, it is a truly analytical measurement in
which the sensor must contact the process environment, in contrast to pressure and temperature
sensors, which are invariably insulated from the process by a thermowell and a diaphragm
respectively. This of course has implications for contamination and degradation of the sensor to
varying degrees depending on the nature of the environment.

This paper reviews various humidity sensor technologies and their typical applications
in context of the measurement ranges to which they are best suited. The effects of
contamination, highly significant in view of the analytical nature of the measurement,
are briefly assessed. In conclusion, it is suggested that, if initial cost is not the prime
consideration, the chilled mirror, optical dew point hygrometer offer the most
accurate, repeatable and reliable method of humidity measurement with the widest
possible range.

Humidity Measurement Applications in a Range of Industries

Table 1 shows an A to Z of industries where humidity measurement plays a part. Whilst the list
is by no means exhaustive, it does serve to illustrate the extremely wide range of applications
with which a supplier of humidity instrumentation may be confronted. Indeed, these applications
cover six orders of magnitude when considered in terms of Parts Per Million (PPM) by volume
of water vapour, equivalent to an overall range of -85 to +100°C dew point. It is of course very
unlikely that one measurement technique can cover the entire range but, if initial cost is not the
prime consideration, the chilled mirror, optical dew point hygrometer can probably be said to
come closest to achieving this.

In practice, a variety of commercial and technical criteria will dictate which

measurement technology is used for any particular application. Table 2 shows the
most common humidity measurement parameters used within the industries
referenced, depending on application, and Table 3 illustrates how certain sensor
technologies are associated with specific industries as dictated by the commercial
pressures and technical demands of the measurement. These aspects are themselves
invariably influenced by the criticality of the measurement.

Two important points to note are that different units are used for different parts of the
measurement range and that the measurement units an industry uses are very often a
good indicator as to the type of sensor technology they should be employing.
Humidity measurement determines the amount of water vapour present in a gas. This
gas can be a mixture, such as air, or it can be a pure gas, such as nitrogen or argon.
While there are many measurement techniques, the most common parameters are
Relative Humidity (RH), Dew/Frostpoint (D/F PT) and Parts Per Million (PPM).