Patent ID: 7008218
Filing Date: 2006-03-07
Classification: F23N

Abstract:
1. In a fossil fuel fired power plant having a combustion area with at least one burner and an associated flame scanner, a method for controlling combustion by-product formation rate comprising: a) obtaining an image signal of flame in said at least one burner by focusing said flame scanner on an area of the flame in said at least one burner where the flame flicker frequency is characteristic of a limited number of combustion pockets in which fuel and air mix and burn; b) generating from said image signal a flame signal representing properties of temporal combustion in the visible light spectrum at said at least one burner; and c) relating a combustion by-product emission level from said at least one burner to said flame signal by calculating a dynamic invariant of said flame signal that provides a measure of the nonlinear dynamics of the flame, said dynamic invariant being nearly constant at the same combustion by-product emission level of said at least one burner and having a consistent relationship with different emission levels of said combustion by-product.