Patent ID: 8447068

Claim:
A computer implemented method for characterizing a flue gas burnout quality of a combustion process in a combustion system having a gas burnout zone, the method comprising: optically detecting in a visible wavelength range, in a flow cross section of the gas burnout zone, low-soot combustion regions, regions without combustion, and sooting regions, so as to provide a plurality of successive individual images, the low-soot combustion regions appearing bright and the regions without combustion and the sooting regions both appearing dark; and analyzing the plurality of successive individual images so as to identify different motion dynamics of the regions without combustion and the sooting regions in an averaged image of at least two of the plurality of successive individual images and distinguish regions of transition, from the low-soot combustion regions, to both the regions without combustion and the sooting regions, wherein the different motion dynamics are identified by determining levels of contrast of the regions of transition of the averaged image so as to distinguish the regions of transition from the low-soot combustion regions to the sooting regions which have a lower level of contrast in the averaged image than the regions of transition from the low-soot combustion regions to the regions without combustion.