Combustion Specialists, Inc.

Other

Enertechnix, Inc.

Richard E Hogle

George Kychakoff

Dean Draxton

James G Droppo, Iii

Martin A Afromowitz

Peter C Ariessohn

A system for detection and control of deposition on pendant tubes in recovery and power boilers includes one or more deposit monitoring sensors operating in infrared regions of about 4 or 8.7 microns and directly producing images of the interior of the boiler, or producing feeding signals to a data processing system for information to enable a distributed control system by which the boilers are operated to operate said boilers more efficiently. The data processing system includes an image pre-processing circuit in which a 2-D image formed by the video data input is captured, and includes a low pass filter for performing noise filtering of said video input. It also includes an image compensation system for array compensation to correct for pixel variation and dead cells, etc., and for correcting geometric distortion. An image segmentation module receives a cleaned image from the image pre-processing circuit for separating the image of the recovery boiler interior into background, pendant tubes, and deposition. It also accomplishes thresholding/clustering on gray scale/texture and makes morphological transforms to smooth regions, and identifies regions by connected components. An image-understanding unit receives a segmented image sent from the image segmentation module and matches derived regions to a 3-D model of said boiler. It derives a 3-D structure the deposition on pendant tubes in the boiler and provides the information about deposits to the plant distributed control system for more efficient operation of the plant pendant tube cleaning and operating systems.

Infrared imaging sensor

A sensing system simultaneously obtains images and surface temperatures of processing tubes inside process heaters using an imaging sensor operating in the visible or infrared regions of the spectrum and capable of detecting visible or infrared radiation emitted or reflected from surfaces within the process heater, and of providing an image signal to a display or to an image processor. One or more single element infrared detectors viewing specific regions within the aforesaid image accurately measure the intensity of radiation emitted by surfaces within those specific regions so as to allow the temperature of the surfaces within those specific regions to be inferred.

Sensing system for obtaining images and surface temperatures

Sensing system for detection and control of deposition on pendant tubes in recovery and power boilers

An acoustic pyrometer measures the average gas temperature across a wide space of known distance, especially turbulent, high temperature gas loaded with caustic particulates. It includes an acoustic signal generator that generates a high amplitude acoustic signal with a short rise time and a detector positioned adjacent the signal generator that detects the onset of the acoustic signal in the signal generator and generates a first electrical signal corresponding in time to the onset of the acoustic signal in the signal generator. A receiver, positioned across the space from the signal generator, receives acoustic signals from the space and generates electrical signals corresponding to amplitude and frequency of the acoustic signals received in the receiver. A signal processor processes the electrical signals from the receiver to distinguish the onset of the acoustic signal from background noise in the space as detected in the receiver, and processes the electrical signals from the receiver to produce a distinct differentiation between background noise and the onset of the acoustic signal in the receiver. The signal processor then compares the time of the onset of the acoustic signal in the receiver with the onset of the acoustic signal in the signal generator to determine the transit time of the acoustic signal to traverse the space, and also calculates the temperature of the gas in the space based on the transit time.

Acoustic pyrometer

A device for smoking food items using charcoal briquettes as fuel. The device has a channel into which the charcoal briquettes are placed so that ignition of one of the charcoal briquettes will result in eventual ignition of the adjacent charcoal briquette. The device is preferably placed in a standard barbecue grill, thereby allowing a user to smoke meat or fish using charcoal briquettes and the charcoal barbecue grill they already own.

Growing community of inventors

Olympia, WA, United States of America

Richard E Hogle