SYSTEM FOR COMBUSTION OPTIMIZATION USING QUANTUM CASCADE LASERS

Abstract

A system with a boiler and a turbine, and an associated control method. The method includes sensing a plurality of operating conditions at a first common boiler location. At least one of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location is indicative of a combustion anomaly occurring during operation. The combustion anomaly indicated by the plurality of operating conditions at the first common location is traced back to an offending burner that is at least partially responsible for the combustion anomaly based on a model that takes into consideration at least two of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location. At least one of a process input and a boiler configuration is adjusted to establish a desired value of the operating conditions at the first common location.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for controlling operation of a boiler that generates steam to drive a turbine or provide process steam or heating, and more specifically to method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling combustion within a boiler by sensing a plurality of operating conditions at a common location with a common sensor.

2. Description of Related Art

One method of generating electricity includes driving a turbine generator with steam. A boiler for generating the steam commonly includes a furnace with an array of individual burners for burning the hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of oxygen to raise the temperature of water and produce the steam to be delivered to the turbine. The combustion performance of an individual burner provided to the furnace can affect the combustion performance locally within the furnace, and thereby affect the overall performance of the boiler as a whole.

If one or more of the burners is not operating in an optimal manner, a condition referred to as a combustion anomaly, the boiler can emit unsatisfactory levels of by products such as oxides of nitrogen (“NO_X”), carbon monoxide (“CO”), mercury (“Hg”), and possibly other byproducts such as unburned carbon (commonly expressed as loss-on-ignition or “LOI”). The combustion anomaly can also result in fuel-rich gases and high local gas temperatures that can contribute to the formation of difficult to remove ash deposits called slag, or can cause boiler tube-wall wastage through corrosion and thermal fatigue. In such circumstances the offending burner(s) must be singled out from the array of burners, and then adjusted to optimize performance of the boiler. Once the offending burner(s) is identified, the performance of that burner can be optimized by means of combustion control, which can include varying the flow rate at which the hydrocarbon fuel is introduced to the burner, the flow rate at which air is introduced to the burner, the rotational velocity component, i.e. spin, of the feed, the angle of injection, an additive level or other suitable variable that can rectify the combustion anomaly.

Traditional boiler control systems have relied upon the monitoring of the exhaust from the furnace as a whole (i.e., the collective exhaust resulting from operation of all burners operating simultaneously) to detect combustion anomalies. In response to the detection of a combustion anomaly based on a measured quantity from this collective exhaust the supply of fuel and/or air to the entire array of burners could be adjusted in an attempt to optimize operation of the boiler. Such control methods fail to consider the local effects each burner has on the boiler, and fails to attribute the individual contribution of each burner to the combustion anomaly.

More recently, attempts have been made to trace a combustion anomaly back to one or more offending burners, from among the entire array of burners that is/are the primary cause of the combustion anomaly. Determining the presence of a combustion anomaly and identifying the offending burner(s), however, is typically not determined as a function of a single operating condition, such as a measured temperature, at a particular location within the boiler. Instead, to identify, or at least narrow down the location of the offending burner(s), such control methods rely on a plurality of measured operating conditions sensed at various different locations within the boiler.

Arrays of individual sensors are disposed at various different locations throughout the boiler to monitor different operating conditions at each of those different locations. For example, the concentration of carbon monoxide (“CO”) has been monitored by an array of sensors disposed at an exhaust port of the boiler downstream of the furnace exit. Further, an array of temperature sensors has been disposed adjacent to a nose of the furnace provided to the boiler to monitor the temperatures near the burners. The temperatures near the burners to which the temperature sensors are exposed are typically too high for the CO concentration sensors to be co-located with the temperature sensors. Thus, the array of CO concentration sensors is spatially located away from the temperature sensors at another, distant location of the boiler where they are subjected to much lower temperatures that will not damage the CO concentration sensors. But in order to consider both the measured CO concentration and the measured temperature at a common location in the boiler to evaluate a combustion anomaly, one of these measured operating conditions was required to be mapped to correspond to an equivalent value at the location of the other operating condition. In other words, the CO concentration measured by each CO concentration sensor adjacent the exhaust port, for example, was adjusted to correspond to the value of the CO concentration that could be expected to be measured at the location of each respective temperature sensor. Thus, the measured temperature and the equivalent CO concentration at a common location in the boiler could be used to determine whether a combustion anomaly has occurred, and if so, which of the burners is contributing to the combustion anomaly.

Such attempts have improved boiler control over the traditional methods of controlling the boiler solely on the CO concentration at the exhaust port. But the mapping of a sensed operating condition from one location to another location within the boiler introduces a degree of error in evaluating a combustion anomaly, limiting the ability to effectively identify the offending burner(s). Further, the mapping requires the use of many mathematical models and robust control equipment, making boiler control expensive and complex.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for controlling operation of a boiler to optimize performance thereof. The method and apparatus can allow for sensing a plurality of operating conditions at a common location within the boiler to detect a combustion anomaly and allow for optimization of boiler operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following summary presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the systems and/or methods discussed herein. This summary is not an extensive overview of the systems and/or methods discussed herein. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of such systems and/or methods. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

According to one aspect, the invention provides a method of controlling operation of a system that includes a boiler with a plurality of burners. The method includes sensing a plurality of operating conditions at a first common location along the boiler. At least one of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location is indicative of a combustion anomaly occurring during operation of the boiler. The method includes tracing the combustion anomaly back to an offending burner that is at least partially responsible for the combustion anomaly based on a model that takes into consideration at least two of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location. The method includes adjusting at least one of a process input and a boiler configuration to establish a desired value of the operating conditions at the first common location.

According to another aspect, the invention provides a system that includes a steam-driven turbine and a boiler. The boiler includes a plurality of burners arranged in an array to burn a hydrocarbon fuel. The system includes a plurality of sensors, each adapted to sense a plurality of operating conditions at a common location within the boiler and to transmit a signal indicative of a combustion anomaly when one or more of the operating conditions falls outside of a predetermined range of suitable values indicative of desired combustion. The system includes an actuator for controlling at least one of a process input and a boiler configuration to affect operation of at least one of the burners. The system includes a controller in communication with the plurality of sensors to receive the signals indicative of the combustion anomaly, wherein, responsive to receiving the signals the controller traces the one or more operating conditions outside of the predetermined range of suitable values to identify an offending burner contributing to the combustion anomaly and controls the actuator to adjust the at least one of the process input and the boiler configuration to bring the one or more operating conditions into the predetermined range of suitable values.

According to yet another aspect, the invention provides a system including a steam-driven turbine and a boiler. The boiler includes a plurality of burners arranged in an array to burn a hydrocarbon fuel. The system includes a plurality of non-invasive sensors each adapted to remotely sense a plurality of operating conditions at a common location within the boiler and to transmit a signal indicative of a combustion anomaly when at least one of the operating conditions falls outside of a predetermined range of suitable values indicative of desired combustion. The system includes a controller in communication with the plurality of non-invasive sensors to receive the signals indicative of the combustion anomaly. The controller includes a computer-accessible memory storing a model that relates the operating conditions falling outside of the predetermined range of suitable values from one or more of the sensors to at least one offending burner contributing to the combustion anomaly. The system includes an actuator to be controlled by the controller for controlling at least one of a flow rate of the hydrocarbon fuel introduced to the offending burner, a flow rate of air introduced to the offending burner, a flow rate of an additive introduced to the boiler through an injector, and an angle of the injector for introducing the additive into the boiler to bring the operating conditions into the predetermined range of suitable values.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may take physical form in certain parts and arrangement of parts, embodiments of which will be described in detail in this specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a power generating system that includes a coal-fired boiler;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a furnace provided to the boiler shown in FIG. 1, wherein a portion of the furnace is cutaway;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a method for controlling combustion within a coal-fired boiler;

FIGS. 4A-4D are cross sectional views of an exhaust port of a boiler divided into zones across which combustion gradients are to be minimized according to a method of controlling operation of the boiler; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a control system for controlling combustion within a boiler to minimize combustion gradients.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Example embodiments that incorporate one or more aspects of the invention are described and illustrated in the drawings. These illustrated examples are not intended to be a limitation on the invention. For example, one or more aspects of the invention can be utilized in other embodiments and even other types of devices. Moreover, certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to be taken as a limitation on the invention. Still further, in the drawings, the same reference numerals are employed for designating the same elements.

A method of optimizing operation of a fuel fired boiler is described below in detail. The method includes the use of a plurality of different sensors at different spatial locations within a fuel fired boiler furnace to track in-furnace combustion conditions and the relative differences between the performance of individual burners. Each of the sensors can be used to sense a plurality of operating conditions at the different spatial locations to make adjustments to individual burners and yield an optimized boiler performance. The optimized operating burner conditions can vary from one burner to another. This means that one or both of the air flow and fuel flow, for example, can vary from burner to burner and that the air to fuel ratio to individual burners is not predetermined. Rather, each burner can be individually biased and adjusted to meet boiler performance objectives as indicated by the in-furnace sensors as described in detail below. Optimized performance includes, for example, reduced NO_x emissions, reduced LOI emissions, increased efficiency, increased power output, improved superheat temperature profile, reduced slagging, reduce waterwall wastage, and/or reduced opacity relative to un-optimized operation of the boiler. Corrective actions such as burner adjustments, boiler configuration adjustments, or both can include, for example, fuel flow, air flow, fuel to air ratio, burner register settings, overfire airflows, the orientation of injectors 55 for introducing an additive (including air or fuel) into the furnace, and other furnace input settings.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a power generating system 10 that includes, in an exemplary embodiment, a boiler 12 coupled to a steam-turbine generator 14. Steam is produced in the boiler 12 and subsequently flows through a steam pipe 16 to the generator 14, which is driven by the steam to produce electric power. The boiler 12 burns a fossil fuel such as coal, or other suitable hydrocarbon fuel source, for example, in a furnace 18 to produce the heat required to convert water into steam for driving the generator 14. Of course, in other embodiments the fossil fuel burned in the furnace 18 can include oil, natural gas or any other suitably combustible material. However, for the sake of brevity the description that follows will refer to coal as the fuel. Crushed coal, for example, is stored in a silo 20 and is ground or pulverized into fine particulates by a pulverizer or mill 22. A coal feeder 24 adjusts the flow of coal from the coal silo 20 into the mill 22. A forced air source such as a fan 26, for example, is used to create an airflow including entrained particulate coal from the mill 22 to convey the coal particles to furnace 18 where the coal is burned by burners 28. The air from the fan 26 used to convey the coal particles from the mill 22 to the burners 28 is referred to as primary air.

A second fan 30 supplies secondary air to the burners 28 through an air conduit 32 and a windbox 33. The secondary air is heated before being introduced into the furnace 18 upon passing through a regenerative heat exchanger 34, transferring heat from a boiler exhaust line 36 to the air conduit 32. Secondary air can optionally be introduced into the furnace 18 in addition to the primary air when there is insufficient oxygen present within the furnace 18 to allow complete combustion of the fuel being burned, a condition referred to herein as an oxygen deficiency.

The boiler 12 also includes a network of actuators that are operable to control at least one of a process input and a boiler configuration to affect the combustion occurring within the furnace 18. The actuators can be adjusted to regulate the process inputs such as a flow rate of fuel and/or air into the furnace 18 to bring the operating conditions sensed by an array of sensors 38 (FIG. 2) provided to the furnace 18 within a predetermined range of suitable values indicative of substantially-balanced combustion as described below. For instance, valves 41 (FIG. 1) between the fan 26 and the furnace 18 can be adjusted to regulate the supply of fuel to the burners 28, individually and/or collectively. Similarly, a damper 52 can be adjusted to regulate the flow of primary air, secondary air, or both primary and secondary air into the furnace 18. Operation of the fans 26, 30, coal feeder 24, and mill 22, alone or in any combination, can optionally be adjusted and controlled to act as the actuators and bring the operating conditions into the predetermined range of suitable values.

According to alternate embodiments, the configuration of the boiler 12 itself can be adjusted instead of, or in addition to the actuators in an attempt to bring the values of the operating conditions to within the predetermined range of suitable values. For example, the furnace 18 can optionally be provided with an additive injector 55 that penetrates a wall of the furnace 18, thereby extending into the furnace 18 for injecting a desired additive from a reservoir 57 into the furnace 18, and optionally into the primary combustion zone. A myriad of additives (such as a combustion additive, or magnesium oxide for slag) could be used, and any specifics about additives should not be considered to be a limitation upon the invention. The additive can be injected into the furnace 18. The angle at which the additive injector 55 introduces the additive into the furnace 18 can be adjusted to affect the operating conditions within the furnace 18.

The process input(s) associated with each individual burner 28 can optionally be adjusted independent of the process input(s) of other burners 28 to affect the combustion performance of the individual burners 28. Likewise, the boiler configuration, such as the injection angle of a first additive injector 55 can be adjusted independently of another additive injector (not shown). This independent adjustment of the boiler configuration can primarily affect the combustion performance of a burner 28 adjacent to the first additive injector 55 without significantly affecting the combustion performance of another burner 28 spatially separated from the first additive injector 55. Thus, the combustion performance of each of the burners 28 can be adjusted and corrected individually to promote substantially-balanced combustion.

A flue gas including gaseous combustion products such as fully combusted fuel in the form of CO₂, in addition to undesirable byproducts such as NO_x, and CO compositions, for example, travels in a substantially vertical direction upward within the furnace 18. The flue gas travels upward beyond a nose 35 that protrudes into an interior chamber defined by the furnace 18, and then generally vertically downward through an exhaust port 37 leading to the exhaust line 36. The exhaust port 37 is said to be “downstream” of the burners 28 as the flue gas travels from a region adjacent to the burners 28 and then to the exhaust port 37 in a direction generally indicated by arrow 39 shown in FIG. 2. Similarly, the burners 28 are said to be “upstream” along the flue gas path indicated by the arrow 39 relative to the exhaust port 37.

Substantially-balanced combustion is achieved when a flue gas has substantially-uniform operating conditions across the cross-section of the exhaust port 37 of the furnace 18 as described below with reference to FIGS. 4A-4D. The operating conditions can be any property within the furnace 18 indicative of the completeness of combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel attributable to one or more burners 28 within the furnace 18. Examples of such operating conditions according to one embodiment can include a temperature of the flue gas. According to other embodiments, the operating condition can include a component composition of the flue gas, wherein the component can be one or more of CO_X (where X=1 or 2), NO_X (representing any binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or to a mixture of such compounds, such as when X=1 or 2), O₂, N₂, total hydrocarbons (“THC”), volatile organic compounds (“VOC”), SO₂, SO₃, H₂O, OH radicals, LOI, and any particulate matter, for example.

Referring also to FIG. 2, the furnace 18 includes a plurality of non-invasive sensors 38 arranged a regular, grid formation and located downstream from a flame envelope 42 formed by burning coal in burners 28 in a primary combustion zone within the furnace 18. The grid locations of the sensors 38 can optionally correspond to the locations of the burners 28, which can also be arranged in a regular, grid arrangement. For example, one of the sensors 38 can be substantially vertically aligned in a column 48 with one of the burners 28. The furnace 18 can also include a plurality of overfire air jets 47 and a plurality of reburn fuel jets 49 disposed downstream from the burners 28. The reburn fuel jets 49 introduce fuel into a secondary combustion zone 44 downstream from the primary combustion zone. The fuel from the reburn fuel jets 49 is mixed with combustion products from the primary combustion zone in the presence of oxygen from air introduced into the furnace 18 downstream from the reburn fuel jets 49 by the overfire air jets 47. The combination of the fuel from the reburn fuel jets 49, the oxygen from the overfire air and the combustion gasses from the primary combustion zone within the furnace establishes a balanced stoichiometry that encourages complete combustion of the fuel and minimizes the formation and emission of unwanted combustion byproducts such as CO and NO_X, for example.

Each sensor 38 can optionally be any non-invasive sensor capable of sensing a plurality of operating conditions at a common location within the furnace 18 without physically protruding into the interior of the furnace, and without physically contacting or consuming combustion products to sense the operating conditions. Thus, the non-invasive embodiment of the sensor can measure the plurality of operating conditions at the common location within the furnace from a remote spatial location. Each sensor 38 can sense a qualitative or quantitative value of two or more operating conditions at substantially the same location within the furnace 18, which can optionally be a location where the sensor would be damaged when exposed to the operating conditions if physically located at that location. For example, if the operating conditions to be sensed at the common location include a temperature and a quantity of carbon monoxide, the temperature sensed at the common location is greater than a maximum temperature that a carbon monoxide sensor can withstand.

The sensors 38 can also transmit signals indicative of a combustion anomaly when one or more of the sensed operating conditions falls outside of a predetermined range of suitable values indicative of a desired, balanced combustion of the fuel-air mixture. The sensed value of the operating condition can be obtained from absolute measurement, relative measurement, and drawing from analysis of fluctuations in combustion quality. Examples of suitable non-invasive sensors 38 for sensing the operating conditions include, but are not limited to, a quantum cascade laser (“QCL”) paired with an optical detector 45 for receiving laser light 51 from the QCL, tunable diode laser or other optical sensor, a radiation sensor, and any other sensor that can measure operating conditions at a common location remotely located from the sensor itself.

Although the sensors 38 are described in detail below as including a combination of QCL and optical detector 45, other embodiments can include any suitable sensor that can withstand the conditions at the common location where the plurality of operating conditions is to be sensed. Further, two sensors could optionally be co-located according to alternate embodiments to sense their respective operating condition at the common location. Examples of such alternate embodiments of sensors 38 include, but are not limited to LOI sensors, temperature sensors, CO sensors, CO₂ sensors, NO_x sensors, O₂ sensors, THC sensors, volatile organic compounds (“VOC”) sensors, sulfur dioxide (SO₂) sensors, heat flux sensors, radiance sensors, opacity sensors, emissivity sensors, moisture sensors, hydroxyl radicals (OH) sensors, sulfur trioxide (SO₃) sensors, particulate matter sensors, and emission spectrum sensors.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of a control system 82 in communication with the plurality of sensors 38 (FIG. 2) to receive the signals indicative of the combustion anomaly to control the actuators and execute the control method disclosed herein. As shown, the control system 82 includes a central processor 84 in communication with a computer-accessible memory 86. A data bus 88 establishes a communication channel to facilitate the transmission of signals as part of the method disclosed herein. The computer-accessible memory 86 stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the central processor 84 instruct the central processor 84 to respond to signals from the sensors 38 to initiate control of the actuators as needed to promote substantially-balanced combustion within the furnace 18. More specifically, responsive to receiving the signals the control system 82 traces one or more operating conditions sensed by the sensors 38 that fall outside of the predetermined range of suitable values to identify an offending burner contributing to a combustion anomaly. The central processor 84, executing the computer-executable instructions from the computer-accessible memory 86 controls one or more of the actuators to adjust the at least one of the process input and the boiler configuration to bring the operating conditions into the predetermined range of suitable values as described in detail below.

A method of controlling operation of the system 10 specific to the boiler 12, which includes a plurality of burners 28, in accordance with an embodiment can be understood with reference to FIG. 3. The method illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to a boiler 12 including a plurality of QCL embodiments of the sensors 38, each for non-invasively measuring a plurality of operating conditions along the laser light between the QCL and its respective optical detector 45. According to such an embodiment, the method includes sensing a plurality of operating conditions at a first common location, such as along the laser light 51 (FIG. 2) for example, within the furnace 18 at 100 (FIG. 3). The first common location where the plurality of operating conditions are sensed in the present embodiment can be thought of as an intersection of the laser light 51 (FIG. 2) and a plane normal to the path of the laser light 51 within the furnace 18. The sensed operating conditions at this intersection can represent an average value of the operating conditions sensed by the QCL embodiment of the sensors 38 between each QCL and their respective optical detector 45. For the present embodiment, the plurality of operating conditions sensed include both the temperature of the flue gas and an amount of CO in the flue gas at the first common location.

The value of the operating conditions as determined by the QCL and its respective optical detector 45 can be recorded in a computer-accessible memory at 105. Recording the value of the operating conditions preserves the sensed value of the operating conditions for comparison with those sensed values during a subsequent iteration of the present method to determine whether the combustion anomaly has been improved.

At least one of the plurality of operating conditions (both operating conditions in the present example) sensed at the first common location can be compared at step 107 to a range of predetermined acceptable values for those operating conditions. If the sensed value of each operating conditions falls within the respective predetermined ranges of acceptable values, the boiler 12 is operating properly and substantially-balanced combustion is achieved. Combustion is maintained at step 109 and the method returns to step 100 to continue monitoring of the operating conditions at the first common location.

If, however, it is determined at step 107 that one or more of the operating conditions falls outside the predetermined range of acceptable values for that operating condition, such a condition is indicative of a combustion anomaly occurring during operation of the boiler 12. During the combustion anomaly the flue gas exiting the exhaust port 37 of the furnace 18 of the boiler 12 does not exhibit substantially-balanced combustion.

At step 110 in FIG. 3, the combustion anomaly indicated by one or more of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location is traced back to an offending burner that is at least partially responsible for the combustion anomaly. Tracing the combustion anomaly is based on a mathematical model that takes into consideration at least two of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location. Since the plurality of operating conditions are sensed at approximately the same location within the furnace 18, these sensed operating conditions can be traced back to the offending burner without mapping one of the sensed operating conditions from a different spatial location within the furnace 18 to another, different spatial location where another operating condition was sensed. In other words, both the temperature and amount of CO sensed in the present example at the first common location within the furnace 18 can be traced from that same first common location back to one or more offending burners. Both are sensed at the first common location within the furnace 18, and thus, one does not first have to be mapped to an equivalent value at another location where the other operating condition is sensed as a precursor to tracing the operating conditions back to the offending burner. Instead, each of the operating conditions can be considered as sensed at the first common location in identifying one or more offending burners responsible for the combustion anomaly indicated by one or both of the operating conditions falling outside of a predetermined range of acceptable values for those operating conditions.

The value of each of the sensed operating conditions can optionally be used in tracking the combustion anomaly back to the offending burner(s) 28, and can optionally be used to identify the one or more burners 28 providing the most significant contributions to the combustion anomaly. For instance, a burner 28 vertically aligned with a QCL embodiment of a sensor 38 and a respective optical detector 45 may contribute more significantly to an under-temperature condition at the common location where the temperature is measured than another burner 28 horizontally offset from the QCL and respectively optical detector 45. Further, if an amount of CO detected by the sensor 38 at the first common location where the temperature was also sensed exceeds a maximum allowable value, it can be determined that an oxygen deficiency exists within the furnace 18. Based on the fluid dynamics within the particular furnace configuration this oxygen deficiency can be traced back to one or more burners 28 that are operating without sufficient levels of oxygen.

In response to tracing the combustion anomaly back to an offending burner at step 110 in FIG. 3, the method continues to include adjusting at least one of a process input and a boiler configuration affecting combustion of the offending burner at step 115. For instance, if the amount of CO detected by the sensor 38 at the first common location where the temperature was also sensed exceeds a maximum allowable value, it can be determined that an oxygen deficiency exists within the furnace 18. One or more actuators such as a damper 52 can be adjusted to introduce more oxygen into the furnace than the amount of oxygen being introduced in the environment of the offending burner 28 when the combustion anomaly was detected. The surplus of oxygen can establish a stoichiometry in the furnace 18 that promotes complete combustion of the hydrocarbon fuel to produce CO₂ instead of CO. According to alternate embodiments, a boiler configuration such as the angle at which an additive is injected into the furnace 18 can be adjusted at step 115 to bring the operating conditions sensed at the common location within the furnace 18 within the predetermined range of acceptable values.

The adjustment made at step 115 can be recorded at 117 to develop a real-time data model for correlating future deviations of the operating conditions sensed at the first common location within the furnace 18 to particular adjustments of process inputs and/or boiler configurations. The mathematical model can be updated in response to each adjustment to reflect the cause and effect of such adjustments on the operating conditions sensed at the first common location in the furnace 18 for subsequent iterations to correct future combustion anomalies.

To illustrate substantially-uniform operating conditions across the cross-section of the exhaust port 37 during substantially-balanced combustion, the exhaust port 37 in FIG. 2 can be divided by two-dimensional grid lines 59 (FIG. 4A) for purposes of the present method. Dividing the cross-section of the exhaust port 37 into zones by the grid is conceptual for monitoring and controlling the combustion performance of the furnace 18, and not a physical division of the exhaust port 37. The grid dividing the exhaust port 37 into a plurality of zones is illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4D, which is a cross section of the exhaust port 37 taken along line 4-4 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4A represents a cross-section of the flue gas exiting the furnace 18 during a combustion anomaly, wherein the flue gas exhibits non uniform operating conditions across the cross-section of the exhaust port 37. The flue gas in FIG. 4A includes many temperature, CO, combustion or other suitable operating condition gradients, which are indicated in FIG. 4A by broken lines designated generally as 60. Each broken line 60 indicates a combustion gradient, separating regions of the cross section exhibiting different degrees of combustion. For example, the region 62 enclosed by broken line 64 can include a greater amount of CO in the flue gas than the region 66 immediately outside of the broken line 64. For alternate embodiments, the region 62 can represent a region of the flue gas that has a higher temperature than the region 66 immediately outside of the broken line 64. In general, the broken lines 60 separate regions where combustion has progressed to different stages of completeness.

The operating conditions of the flue gas exiting via each zone are affected differently by the combustion of each burner 28 at different spatial locations within the furnace 18. Thus, the adjustments to the process input and/or boiler configuration brought about by the method described above with reference to FIG. 3 can be specific to those burners 28 contributing to the combustion anomalies within the various zones of the exhaust port 37. For example, the region 62 having an unacceptably high CO concentration defined by broken line 64 in FIG. 4A can be rectified by adjusting the process input and/or boiler configuration affecting combustion of the offending burners 28 primarily contributing to the CO concentration at zones a, b, c and d defined by the grid. Adjusting the combustion performance of the offending burners 28 without altering the combustion performance of non-offending burners minimizes the number of combustion gradients 60 across the cross section of the exhaust port 37.

The adjustment of the process input and/or boiler configuration as described with reference to FIG. 3 minimizes combustion gradients 60 at the exhaust port 37 (FIG. 2) of the furnace 18. The cross-sectional view of the flue gas leaving the exhaust port 37 in FIG. 4B following a first iteration of the method resulting in an adjustment of at least one of the process input and the boiler configuration. Although the region 62 indicative of the combustion anomaly remains, fewer combustion gradients indicated by broken lines 60 exist than before the first adjustment of the process input and/or boiler configuration. Further, the degree of the combustion gradients may also be less than the degree of the combustion gradients appearing in FIG. 4A. For instance, the region 62 in FIG. 4B may represent a CO concentration of the flue gas that is less than the CO concentration in the region 62 in FIG. 4A. But just as for FIG. 4A, the zones a, b, c and d in FIG. 4B where the region 62 is primarily located correspond to the same offending burners 28 contributing to the region 62 in FIG. 4A, so further adjustment of the process input and/or boiler configuration for those offending burners is appropriate to promote substantially-balanced combustion.

FIG. 4C illustrates another cross-sectional view of the combustion gradients for the flue gas exiting the exhaust port 37 of the furnace 18 following another iteration of the method appearing in FIG. 3. The cross-sectional view in FIG. 4C is approaching substantially-balanced combustion, and includes a primary combustion anomaly region 70 defined by the broken line 72 representing a combustion gradient. The primary combustion anomaly region 70 is present in a greater number of zones (outlined in bold lines and designated generally a-h) than the region 62 in FIGS. 4A and 4B. In other words, there are fewer combustion gradients and more uniform combustion across the cross section of the exhaust port 37 in FIG. 4C than in FIGS. 4A and 4B, which is indicative of substantially-balanced combustion. Further adjustment of the process input and/or boiler configuration will be specific to the offending burners 28 that are primary contributors to the combustion anomaly appearing across zones a-h in FIG. 4C.

Finally, following yet another iteration of the method described with reference to FIG. 3, substantially-balanced combustion is achieved and the combustion gradients indicated generally by broken line 80 in FIG. 4D are minimized. As shown, the combustion is substantially uniform across a majority of the cross section of the exhaust port 37. Substantially-balanced combustion does not necessarily require a complete absence of combustion gradients, but only that the combustion gradients are minimized over most of the cross section of the exhaust port 37.

The invention has been described with reference to the example embodiments described above. Modifications and alterations will occur to others upon a reading and understanding of this specification. Example embodiments incorporating one or more aspects of the invention are intended to include all such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of controlling operation of a system that includes a boiler with a plurality of burners, the method including:

sensing a plurality of operating conditions at a first common location along the boiler, wherein at least one of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location is indicative of a combustion anomaly occurring during operation of the boiler;

tracing the combustion anomaly back to an offending burner that is at least partially responsible for the combustion anomaly based on a model that takes into consideration at least two of the plurality of operating conditions sensed at the first common location; and

adjusting at least one of a process input and a boiler configuration to establish a desired value of the operating conditions at the first common location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the operating conditions at the first common location exceeds an acceptable level above which a sensor placed at the first common location for sensing a second of the operating conditions would be damaged, and wherein sensing of the operating conditions at the first common location includes non-invasively sensing the operating conditions with a single sensor that is remotely located from the first common location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the single sensor is selected from the group consisting of a quantum cascade laser and a tunable diode laser aimed to project laser light generally toward the first common location for sensing the plurality of operating conditions at the first common location.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the operating conditions to be sensed at the first common location include a temperature and a quantity of carbon monoxide, wherein the temperature sensed at the first common location is greater than a maximum temperature that a carbon monoxide sensor can withstand.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting at least one of the process input and the boiler configuration includes adjusting a flow rate of a process input being introduced to the offending burner to establish desired values of the operating conditions at the first common location.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the process input includes at least one of a fuel and combustion air being introduced to the offending burner.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the offending burner is designated as one of the plurality of burners that most significantly contributes to the combustion anomaly indicated by the at least one of the operating conditions at the first common location relative to non-offending burners.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operating conditions at the first common location includes two or more of temperature, oxygen level, carbon monoxide level, carbon dioxide level, NOx level, SOx level, and ammonia level, wherein x is an integer independently selected to be 1, 2 or 3.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the at least one of the process input and the boiler configuration produces an exhaust including a NOx emission that is maintained below a specified level, wherein x is an integer independently selected to be 1 or 2.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the process input includes a flow rate of an additive being introduced to the boiler by an injector.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the boiler configuration includes an angle at which an injector introduces a process input into the boiler.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the boiler includes a plurality of process inputs selected from the group consisting of combustion air, a fuel, a reagent, and an additive, the method further including designating at least one of the process inputs to be a significant process input that is present in a greater proportion at a region within the boiler than the significant process input would be if the inputs were distributed uniformly throughout the boiler.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein adjusting at least one of the process input and the boiler configuration includes varying a flow rate of the significant process input to establish the desired value of the operating condition at the first common location.

14. A system including:

a steam-driven turbine;

a boiler including a plurality of burners arranged in an array to burn a hydrocarbon fuel;

a plurality of sensors each adapted to sense a plurality of operating conditions at a common location within the boiler and to transmit a signal indicative of a combustion anomaly when one or more of the operating conditions falls outside of a predetermined range of suitable values indicative of desired combustion;

an actuator for controlling at least one of a process input and a boiler configuration to affect operation of at least one of the burners; and

a controller in communication with the plurality of sensors to receive the signals indicative of the combustion anomaly, wherein, responsive to receiving the signals the controller traces the one or more operating conditions outside of the predetermined range of suitable values to identify an offending burner contributing to the combustion anomaly and controls the actuator to adjust the at least one of the process input and the boiler configuration to bring the one or more operating conditions into the predetermined range of suitable values.

15. The system of claim 4, wherein at least one of the plurality of sensors is a non-invasive sensor for sensing the plurality of operating conditions in a non-invasive manner.

16. The system of claim 5, wherein the non-invasive sensor is selected from a group consisting of a quantum cascade laser, and a tunable diode laser.

17. The system of claim 4, wherein the operating conditions to be sensed at the common locations include a temperature and a quantity of carbon monoxide.

18. A system including:

a steam-driven turbine;

a boiler including a plurality of burners arranged in an array to burn a hydrocarbon fuel;

a plurality of non-invasive sensors each adapted to remotely sense a plurality of operating conditions at a common location within the boiler and to transmit a signal indicative of a combustion anomaly when at least one of the operating conditions falls outside of a predetermined range of suitable values indicative of desired combustion;

a controller in communication with the plurality of non-invasive sensors to receive the signals indicative of the combustion anomaly, the controller including a computer-accessible memory storing a model that relates the operating conditions falling outside of the predetermined range of suitable values from one or more of the sensors to at least one offending burner contributing to the combustion anomaly; and

an actuator to be controlled by the controller for controlling at least one of a flow rate of the hydrocarbon fuel introduced to the offending burner, a flow rate of air introduced to the offending burner, a flow rate of an additive introduced to the boiler through an injector, and an angle of the injector for introducing the additive into the boiler to bring the operating conditions into the predetermined range of suitable values.

19. The system of claim 8, wherein the computer-accessible memory stores a plurality of models that relate the temperature and the level of the combustion byproduct sensed by a plurality of different sensors to the offending burner contributing to the combustion anomaly.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the non-invasive sensor is selected from a group consisting of a quantum cascade laser and a tunable diode laser.