Patent ID: 8469700

Claim:
A system for predicting fouling and corrosion of a combustion system in an industrial process comprising: a pipe in the industrial process containing a fuel; a restrictive element coupled to the pipe and which leads to a combustion chamber of the combustion system which generates a back pressure in the pipe; and a fouling and corrosion detector coupled to the pipe and adapted to detect a characteristic signature having a time varying component of the fuel flowing through the restrictive element and into the combustion chamber of the combustion system, the characteristic signature reflected from the restrictive element; wherein the characteristic signature comprises a reflected acoustic signal; and wherein the fouling and corrosion detector comprises: an acoustic transducer coupled to the pipe and adapted to detect acoustic signals in the fuel in the pipe; a memory configured to store baseline characteristic acoustic signatures, and wherein the fouling and corrosion detector is configured to store a plurality of baseline characteristic acoustic signatures during normal operation of the restrictive element, the plurality of baseline characteristic acoustic signatures measured at different back pressures in the pipe; and fouling and corrosion detection circuitry coupled to the acoustic transducer and to the memory and adapted to compare the characteristic signature detected by the acoustic transducer of a current back pressure against one of the stored plurality of baseline characteristic acoustic signatures obtained at a back pressure and responsively identify fouling or corrosion of the restrictive element based upon the comparison.