Patent ID: 6875014

Claim:
A method for monitoring a combustion process in which there is a quantity of energy supplied so that a substance arranged in a bed of an oven is converted under the supply of heat by way of firing by a flame to produce a quantity of produced material, the method comprising: recording data through the use of at least one sensor, with the recorded data including at least: thermal radiation data for the flame, and thermal radiation data for the substance in the bed; normalizing data, through the use of one or more quantities selected from the group consisting of the quantity of energy supplied and the quantity of produced material, to produce normalized data, wherein the data being normalized includes at least: the thermal radiation data for the flame and, the thermal radiation data for the substance in the bed, and whereby the normalized data includes at least: normalized thermal radiation data for the flame, and normalized thermal radiation data for the substance in the bed; determining a quantity of heat input into the bed from a difference between the normalized thermal radiation data for the flame and the normalized thermal radiation data for the substance in the bed; determining a quality using the quantity of heat input into the bed; and controlling the combustion process, wherein the controlling of the combustion process includes optimizing the quantity of heat input into the bed at a defined temperature.