Johnson Matthey Public Limited Company

Michael Davies

Matthew John Cousins

John David Pach

Andrew Johnson

Paul White

Peter Stones

A method is described for controlling a furnace containing a plurality of catalyst-containing tubes heated by a combustion gas generated by a plurality of burners, said method comprising the steps of: (i) measuring path-averaged combustion gas temperatures on multiple paths through the furnace using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, (ii) periodically measuring temperatures of surfaces within the furnace to obtain periodic surface temperature information, (iii) entering the path-averaged combustion gas temperatures and periodic surface temperature information into a computer model of the furnace, said model comprising parameters for controlling the furnace; and (iv) using the computer model and the temperature information to obtain optimised parameters for controlling the furnace. A system for performing the method is also described.

Furnace control method

A method of recording images within a furnace using a thermal imaging camera comprising a bore scope connected to a digital camera unit is described, comprising the steps of: (a) inserting the borescope into the interior of the furnace, (b) collecting one of more images of the interior of the furnace using the thermal imaging camera with the borescope at a first position, and (c) moving the borescope from the first position to a second position and collecting one or more images of the interior of the furnace as the borescope is moved from the first position to the second position, wherein the borescope movement is guided by means of a guide device comprising a movable borescope mounting, mounted externally on the furnace.

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Billingham, United Kingdom

Michael Davies