Are you struggling with high emissions, low thermal efficiency and poor fuel utilization? Flame Doctor™ may be able to help.
Licensed by Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), Flame Doctor utilizes signals from existing optical flame scanners to diagnose poor operation in individual burners that contributes to excessive emissions and low efficiency. By continuously monitoring the status of all burners, Flame Doctor makes it possible to optimize overall furnace performance in spite of load changes, fuel quality variations and equipment deterioration.
Flame Doctor is a portable hardware and software package designed for utility and industrial coal burners. The portable system supports combustion tuning services by B&W; however, the system is also designed for permanent installation.The main hardware components are a central data acquisition system for collecting flame scanner signal output and a computer for signal processing and display. Usually, it is possible to use output from currently installed optical flame scanners with little or no modification.
The Flame Doctor software includes a graphical user interface and a diagnostics module for processing the scanner signals. The heart of the system is a set of highly sophisticated, proprietary mathematical tools for identifying flame patterns and diagnosing combustion problems.
In addition to providing highly accurate discrimination of different flame conditions, the diagnostic tools incorporate many years of practical experience in the design and operation of coal-fired burners. Once the scanner signals are processed, Flame Doctor provides an immediate assessment for each individual burner. A flame "quality map" for the furnace is then displayed for the operator on the graphical user interface. With this information, individual burners can be adjusted to optimize overall performance.
We also offer burner tuning and problem investigation services that use the Flame Doctor technology in a portable test system.
Why Flame Doctor?
Numerous economic and regulatory factors are accelerating development of tighter controls for utility boilers. The ability to assess individual burner performance on large coal-fired generators has always been problematic and qualitative. Technology to enable accurate burner monitoring can be of great benefit to successful management and optimization of the combustion process. This is particularly true for advanced low NOx burners, because they are more sensitive to changes in coal quality and boiler operation. Continuous monitoring is beneficial because fluctuations in NOx and carbon burnout performance can occur in just a few minutes due to changes in fuel and furnace operation.
Flame Doctor
uses a new approach for discriminating flame patterns that is more effective
than traditional approaches. Mathematical relationships derived from chaos
theory is used to detect characteristic shifts in each flame's flicker
pattern that measure the degree to which that flame has deviated from optimal.
Pilot-scale tests at B&W's Clean-Environment
Development Facility have shown that this new approach to pattern recognition
is more discriminating than traditional Fourier-transform-based methods. In
addition, the new mathematics are combined with a more complete understanding
of burner physics stemming from B&W's years of combustion research.
Together, these features give Flame Doctor its technology-leading diagnostic
power.
Proven experience
Babcock & Wilcox is a world leader in the design, manufacture, erection and operation of coal-fired boilers. We are always looking for new technologies that can enhance the operation of coal-fired burners to improve the overall operation of the industry's coal-fired generators. We combine our experience and knowledge of the factors that effect coal combustion with the unique high tech capabilities of Flame Doctor to provide enhanced unit operation.
Flame Doctor is currently available as a value-added burner tuning service. We are working closely with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on the implementation of installed systems at targeted member utilities.
For more information, please contact us.
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