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Intelligent flame analysis for an optimized combustion

Stephan Peper Senior Consultant Combustion Optimization ABB UTD/PGA Kallstadter Street 1 Mannheim, Germany Dirk Schmidt Sales Manager Powitec Intelligent Technologies Im Teelbruch 134b Essen, Germany

KEYWORDS
Combustion Optimization, power plant, camera, image processing, neural net

ABSTRACT
One of the primary challenges in the area of process control is to ensure that many competing optimization goals are accomplished at the same time and be considered in time. This paper describes a successful approach through the use of an advanced pattern recognition technology and intelligent optimization tool modeling combustion processes more precisely and optimizing them based on a holistic view.

INTRODUCTION
Within the combustion process to date camera systems are mainly applied for visualization purposes only [1]. This video technology provides the operator with online information of the flame behavior, but is limited to the operators capability to interpret the complex visual information and to react on it in an appropriate way. For this reason, in recent years intelligent flame analysis systems have been developed to extract additional flame information characterizing the combustion in far better way [2,3]. Furthermore, this information, available in a digital format, allows an intelligent processing in conjunction with the other measurements of the plant. The efficient use of this large set of information is crucial for a successful and continuous combustion optimization. The proposed system uses a computer-aided significance analysis where, as a first step, the parameters dominating the process are identified. These parameters are the primary sources of information for the optimization software that is structured in such a way that it automatically adapts to constantly changing process conditions (adaptivity). The optimizer can recognize, among other things, the effects that wear and tear have on machines and plant components, or changes in the fuel used in the process, and can readapt its optimization strategy as necessary.

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The paper describes the hierarchy of the system and the different steps of data collection, model building, and navigation for optimizing the combustion process. Finally, results of implemented systems will be presented showing the potentials in saving operational costs for coal, ammonia, energy (self consumption), etc.

REQUIREMENTS
The efficient combustion is primarily defined by the air to fuel ratio and the proper distribution of the air within the furnace zones [4]. High excess air increases the energy due to a higher volume of hot flue gas leaving the stack. Additionally, the self-consumption of the related fans will be increased and also contribute to a higher spending of fuel. In contrary, low excess air will possibly result in higher secondary NOx, higher carbon in ash, and problems regarding water wall corrosion. For this reason the proper balance of fuel and air is crucial for minimal operational and maintenance cost. However, in case of a pulverized coal boiler such balance is hard to find. The information of the fuel flow broken down to each burner in general is not directly available. The fuel flow to the pulverizers is often very coarsely given by feeder speed, whereas the fuel flow from the pulverizer to the burner is only calculated under the assumption of an equal split of the coal input between the corresponding burner pipes. Thus an exact air/fuel control is not possible. Varying coal quality is gaining more importance since coal is obtained worldwide for varying prices. The combustion of a wider bandwidth can considerably increase the flexibility in this process of procurement. However, the coal type very much influences the combustion. Attributes such as calorific value, volatile matter, sulfur content, hard grove index, etc. have a great impact on the process. For these reasons, measures have to be applied, (I) from which the above information can be derived and, (II) which optimize the combustion based on this information automatically. The system should equalize air/fuel ratio and flow, allow a wider fuel bandwidth, allow alternative fuel (e.g. sewage sludge), stabilize flame and combustion, reduce emissions, and guarantee safe water wall atmosphere

at different loads and adapting to changing plant conditions. In the following a system will be explained starting with the flame sensor - fulfilling such requirements [5]. It obtains this information through the analysis of individual flames by digital image processing.

FLAME SENSOR
The sensor, shown in Figure 1, uses an air-cooled, rigid endoscope with two optical outputs. This highly rapid optical system has been designed especially for applications in furnaces. The endoscope can be used in any combustion medium. Special bands of wavelengths (such as UV, VIS, or NIR) can be selected.

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The first optical output is used to monitor a defined area of a single flame through a CCD video camera. The second optical output is used for a CMOS camera, transmitting radiation data of the flame directly to a field computer for flow condition analysis.

flow conditions A optical device with beam splitter B video camera C CMOS camera pattern recognition video signal

FIG 1 FLAME SENSOR

Each sensor is assigned to its own field computer analyzing the flame data and extracting image criteria. The criteria or characteristics are transmitted, parallel with the video pictures, to a system computer, which is typically located in the control room. The CCD camera obtains 3 video images, individually for red, green and blue light (RGB) 25 times per second. This camera system delivers the live color video images for the control room. This information can be used to determine the flame temperatures in a sufficient quality. At the same time, the second camera system (CMOS camera) determines flame characteristics highly spatially and temporally discretized. An image frame of up to 1280 x 1280 pixel can be obtained and be processed at a speed of 10 Mpixel/sec. Flame characteristics, such as flow conditions (i.g. fluctuation), are analysed by a frequency analysis. The temporal and spatial behavior of fluctuations in flame intensities within the burner field is drawn upon as a measure of turbulence. This correlates to the turbulence of the flow field, to the particle load, and to the speed inside the single flame. Adjustments like fuel and air variations are reproducible attained.

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TABLE 1 TECHNICAL DATA OF THE FLAME SENSOR DESCRIPTION

DIAMETER (PROTECTION TUBE OF ENDOSCOPE) LENGTH (PROTECTION TUBE OF ENDOSCOPE) EXTENSION MODULE ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATUR, HEAD ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATUR, MANTLING MATERIAL AIR CONSUMPTION PRESSURE COOLING AND PURGING AIR

MEASURE
1.7 inches (43 mm) 31.5 inches (800 mm) 11.8 inches (300 mm) < 2370 F (1300 C) < 750 F (400 C) Stainless steel 30 m3 / h > 4 bar Oil- dust- and water free

FLAME CHARACTERISTICS
The visual information will be transferred to an image processing system. Here flame characteristics highly correlating with temperatures, intensity fluctuation, light frequencies, coal distribution, and coal fineness

will be determined internally. Beside these explicit characteristics, implicit information additionally is extracted. Up to 25 different features will be generated. A high degree of spatial and temporal discretization provided by the camera system guarantees high information content of the received data. Parallel to the characteristic extraction the system includes a visualization module, which enables the operator to get an online feedback of burner adjustments also on comfortable thermography tools. One example for the use of this thermography module is shown in Figure 2.

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FIG 2 THERMOGRAPHY MODULE PIT INDICATOR' The different temperatures are color-coded. Via the cursor measuring points, lines, or areas can be defined according to locations of interest. In these locations calculations are performed to determine MIN/MAX or MEAN values over specific time intervals. Limits can be set and alarms are issued in case the temperatures exceed or fall short of these limits. A special feature is the POLYLINE-display. Two freely positionable polygon lines (straight lines or curves) can be saved as chronological representations. The temperature differences in the observed area are continuously displayed on a time scale. The temperature distribution in this region can thus be displayed for a period of hours or days. In the example above, the change in the flame shape is easily discernible from POLYLINE 0 and 1. Rapid process characteristics are required for online prognosis and as a basis for an automatic control with the system own optimization software based on neural nets. The characteristics are acquired via extraction of so-called moments by means of digital image processing (high temporal and spatial resolution). The moments are image information, which describe the flame image with great detail and reproducibility and in a manner, which the evaluation software is able to understand.

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The raw data is further processed to characteristics specially adapted to the navigation software. Besides geometrical and statistical characteristics, neuronal characteristics form the basis to predict NOx and other production results. An example is given in Figure 3. Here no explicit physical characteristics but raw signals are shown and correlated with NOx concentration before SCR. The good correlation is given with the advantage, that these raw signals are immediately available at combustion. Thus they can influence the NOx control much quicker than the (extractive) measurement can do. The signal NOx before DENOX is corrected regarding time delay.

FIG 3 NOX CHARACTERISTICS

SIGNIFICANCE ANALYSIS
The main objectives of the significance analysis are to identify those process parameters which have largest impact on a specific optimization variable, and to model the relationship between the measured variables or camera-based characteristics and the resulting controlled variables.

Crucial for this analysis is the joint processing of the visual and conventional plant characteristics, since the combination (subsets) of characteristics often indicate highest optimization potentials.

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In order to minimize the required computation work and to avoid ambiguity, the analysis only uses relevant data records of a period of several months. The data records are imaged via neural networks and are used for weighting the process parameters in accordance with their relevance to a specific optimization objective. Based on the results of the weighting procedure, the ranking, the potential for improving the combustion conditions can be assessed. A possible ranking is shown in the following table. The characteristics or channels are split into three groups: significant, redundant, and excluded channels. According to a given optimization goal only the top four channels are most relevant, whereas the other channels only provide redundant or no information. Consequently, in the neural net model of the boiler behavior only the top four will be included. TABLE 2 RESULTS OF A SIGNIFICANCE ANALYSIS X PIT-ANALYZER
channel ranking of significance analysis datafile: power 146 significant channels rank channel single error 0 PLA_BD_ZUT30 0,087 1 REG_KL_KALU_M30 0,131 2 MOMENT R02Z1 0,116 3 MOMENT B02Z1 0,121 redundant channels 4 CO2 S2 5 SELU_KL_2_BR32 6 CO2 S1 7 TERT_LU BR31 8 MOMENT B01Z1 9 AIR 1 10 TERT_LU BR32 11 CO S2 12 CO S1 13 MOMENT R01Z1 14 AXIAL 15 RADIAL 16 NOX_V_DENOX 17 MOMENT B03Z1 excluded channels 18 MOMENT B01Z2 19 MOMENT R05Z1

date: 23/05/01 incremental error 0,090 0,088 0,099 0,110

0,116 0,118 0,120 0,134 0,135 0,136 0,137 0,137 0,139 0,139 0,140 0,140 0,141 0,141

0,107 0,100 0,106 0,096 0,119 0,110 0,105 0,103 0,105 0,110 0,108 0,113 0,111 0,101

As an example, the result of the significance analysis the ranking is shown in TABLE 2: In contrast to the redundant channels (rank 4 - 17), the significant channels are suitable as inputs for the

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optimization of control. With an alteration of the PLA_BD_ZUT30 (dispatcher load mill 30) and REG_KL_KALU_M30 (controller flap cold air mill 30) as process input values, the defined optimization target can now be influenced. The two important online characteristics MOMENT... (ranks 2, 3) help to precisely determine the intervention quantity. It is just these moderate interventions that account for the adaptivity of the process control! At any given time, the optimization strategy adapts to the current process situation. At the end of the significance analysis a complete model is built mapping the controlled actuators and their influence on the combustion process in a neural network.

NAVIGATOR
The boiler model is the basis for optimizing the combustion process. A program called PiT navigator performs this optimization. Traditional neuro/fuzzy models are generated once during a training phase. In contrast, this system learns autonomously, on a continual basis. It is able to recognize, among other things, changes induced by the wear and tear on machines and plant components or any fluctuating calorific values in the primary and secondary fuels. The navigator independently readjusts its optimization strategy. The process characteristics gathered by the system are ideally used as new process control variables. In the past, it was only possible to use dead-time-based variables for controlling. As online characteristics can now be collected by the system itself, the new data allow the process to be adequately controlled much more quickly and at a greater accuracy. Figure 4 shows the navigator as the center of the optimization process.

FIG 4 NAVIGATOR OPTIMIZES THE COMBUSTION PROCESS BASED ON PLANT INPUTS

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SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The final configuration of the system is shown in Figure 5. The navigator is installed on a LINUX PC in the control room and directly communicates with the DCS. A large set of interfaces for different control systems exist. For safety reasons, the navigator does not overwrite set points in the DCS but provides set point changes to the control. In case of large load ramps, invalid load ranges, or set point limit violations its input to the DCS is not considered. The navigator receives the flame characteristics from a field PC associated to each camera. The camera information is directly processed and compressed on the field PC in order to transfer the highly discretized spatial and temporal signals in the appropriate time frame.

Multisensor incl. video - and CMOS camera

Field controller with cabinet

System PC with visualization software

Transfer der bertragungof image characteristics

Retraction module einrichtung Video signal

Rckzugs-

Feldschrank ME Cabinet

Process coupling with setpoint correction

Ethernet

DCS
FIG 5 SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

SYSTEM APPLICATION
Highest benefits are to reach in coal [6] and oil fired power plants. However, first implementations in waste incineration plants also show positive results. The potentials here are an increase of waste combustion with a decrease of steam variation and at the same time with reduced pollutant and corrosive emissions. Furthermore, in rotary kilns of cement plants the system is of a high benefit [7]. It reduces the primary fuel up to 5% and, at the same time, reduces the NOx emissions at the primary combustion around 20%.

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The first complete installation in a coal-fired power plant comprises of six sensors, each for one burner. The total air volume decreases through a locally optimized fuel-air ratio. The excess air in the flue gas was reduced in load variations between 70% and 100 % in an average value of 0,8%. Parallel measurements show a substantially lower CO and NOx concentration than without using the system. The boiler operation proved to be clearly more positive regarding residual oxygen at the combustion chamber walls helping to prevent corrosion. Other advantages, which could be gained with the system included: Increased boiler efficiency (up to 1%) Optimization of the fuel-air ratio for individual burner, burner level and total combustion system Reduction of excess air Reduction of NOx Reduction of CO Control over extinguishing of the flame on an individual burner and coal mill operation; correction of negative effects on the combustion process Cessation of discontinuous check of the fuel distribution

CONCLUSION
A novel system has been proposed which provides an integrated solution for combustion optimization. A sophisticated camera system extracting flame characteristics of each individual burner coupled with a self adapting neural net based navigator allow the increase of efficiency, reduction of emissions, and the combustion of a wider fuel bandwidth. The direct availability of additional up to 25 different characteristics of the flame allows a quick reaction on changes in the process. General changes of boiler behavior will continuously result in model adaptations and thus allow the navigator to accurately find the optimal combustion state. Finally, a number of system applications even in different industrial processes prove the relevance of such solution.

REFERENCES
1. Kaiser, Engineering Office, External Furnace Television System IMA 011/210-211, technical description 2. Siemens AG, Power Generation Group, Instrumentation &Control in the Power Plant: Automatic Combustion Diagnostics, product brochure, 1999 3. K, M. et al., Verbrennungsdiagnosesysteme zur Optimierung von Kohlenstaubfeuerungen, VGB-Fachtagung Feuerungen 2001 Effizienter Feuerungsbetrieb im deregulierten Strommarkt , VGB PowerTech e.V., Kassel, November 2001 4. Singer, Joseph G., Designing for boiler performance, Combustion Fossil Power, Forth Edition, Combustion Engineering, Inc., 1991, 6-5 ff

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5. ABB Utilities, Combustion Optimization Intelligent Flame Analysis, product brochure, 2001 6. D. Schmidt & S. Sauer et al., Lignite and Low Rank Coals, VGB & EPRI Conference, Erbach/Eltville, May 17-18, 2001 7. Powitec Intelligent Technologie, Navigation systems for the cement industry, product brochure, 2001