Patent ID: 7838297

Claim:
A method of optimizing operation of a fossil fuel fired boiler, the boiler comprising a plurality of burners within a furnace, each burner receiving fossil fuel and combustion air, said method comprising: (a) providing a first plurality of sensors within a combustion zone of the furnace, a second plurality of sensors within the furnace outside the combustion zone and upstream from a heat exchanger, and a third plurality of sensors within the furnace outside the combustion zone, wherein the third plurality of sensors are upstream from the heat exchanger and downstream from the first and second plurality of sensors, and wherein the first plurality of sensors, the second plurality of sensors, and the third plurality of sensors are positioned to correspond to the plurality of burners; (b) recording sensor outputs; (c) identifying spatial combustion anomalies indicated by the sensor outputs; (d) identifying a plurality of flow paths from each of the plurality of burners to corresponding ones of the plurality of sensors using flow modeling, and identifying burners responsible for the spatial combustion anomalies based on the plurality of flow paths; (e) adjusting air flow of responsible burners to alleviate the spatial combustion anomalies to facilitate at least one of reducing NOx emissions, reducing LOI emissions, increasing efficiency, increasing power input, improving superheat temperature profile, and reducing opacity, wherein adjusting air flow of responsible burners comprises at least one of reducing excess air to at least some burners and increasing fuel to at least some burners to determine the burners causing the combustion anomalies; and (f) providing a plurality of dampers coupled to fuel input lines to adjust fuel flow to the burners based on the sensor outputs.