Equipment and method for three-dimensional radiance and gas species field estimation in an open combustion environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11248963-B2
Application number	US-201815873172-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 17, 2018
Priority date	Jan 23, 2017
Publication date	Feb 15, 2022
Grant date	Feb 15, 2022

Abstract

Process for measuring emission for a flame in an open combustion environment. A captured image is received from each of a plurality of image capturing devices in at least one selected spectral band. Each of the plurality of image capturing devices is trained on the flame from the combustion process from a different perspective view angle. A spectral path length of the flame in the at least one spectral band is estimated from the captured images. Emitted radiance of the flame is estimated from the captured images, and a temperature of the flame is estimated from the estimated emitted radiance. A gas species concentration of the flame is estimated from the temperature of the flame and the spectral path length of the flame. Emission for the flame is measured from the gas species concentration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process for calculating gas emission for a flame of a combustion process in an open combustion environment, comprising:
receiving a captured image from each of a plurality of image capturing devices in at least one selected spectral band, wherein each of the plurality of image capturing devices is trained on the flame from the combustion process from a different perspective view angle, wherein the combustion process comprises a flare or a field of flares;
calibrating the plurality of image-capturing devices;
registering the plurality of image-capturing devices;
synchronizing the plurality of image-capturing devices;
estimating a spectral path length of the flame in the at least one spectral band from the captured images;
estimating emitted radiance of the flame from the captured images;
estimating a temperature of the flame from the estimated emitted radiance;
estimating a gas species concentration of the flame from the estimated temperature of the flame and the estimated spectral path length of the flame; and
calculating gas emission for the flame from the estimated gas species concentration.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the image capturing devices comprise multi-spectral image-capturing devices;
wherein the selected one or more of the plurality of spectral bands comprises a plurality of selected spectral bands, and wherein said receiving a captured image comprises receiving a captured image from each of a plurality of image capturing devices in each of the plurality of selected spectral bands; and
wherein said estimating a spectral path length of the flame comprises estimating a spectral path length in each of the plurality of selected spectral bands.

3. The process of claim 2 , further comprising:
for each of a plurality of pixels in each of the received images, transforming a sensed image intensity from the image-capturing device to a received radiance; and
transforming the received radiance to an estimated emitted radiance by adjusting the received radiance for atmospheric attenuation.

4. The process of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a plurality of captured visible spectrum images captured from a plurality of visible color cameras respectively registered with each of the image-capturing devices;
characterizing smoke from the open combustion environment from the received captured images and the received captured visible images.

5. The process according to claim 4 , further comprising:
overlaying the received captured image from at least one of the image-capturing devices with the received captured visible spectrum image from the visible color camera registered with that one of the image-capturing devices to provide a fused image;
determining at least one thermal signature boundary and a visible smoke boundary in the fused image, wherein the at least one thermal signature boundary is determined based on the received captured image from the at least one of the plurality of image-capturing devices, and the visible smoke boundary is determined based on the respective captured visible spectrum image;
determining a reference region in the fused image;
mapping a Ringelmann scale associated with the visible smoke boundary to a normalized Ringelmann scale based on the at least one thermal signature boundary, the visible smoke boundary, the reference region, and at least one environmental condition.

6. The process of claim 4 , wherein said calculating gas emission comprises smoke quantification.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said estimating a gas species concentration comprises estimating a gas species concentration for at least two gas species;
wherein one of the gas species comprises water vapor.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the flame is emitted from a burner of the flare, wherein the flare is fed by a hydrocarbon feed line,
wherein the process further comprises measuring a mass flow rate and a gas composition in the hydrocarbon feed line;
wherein said calculating gas emission is further based on the measured mass flow rate and gas composition.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the flame is emitted from the flare, wherein the flare is fed by a hydrocarbon feed line; and
wherein said estimating a gas species concentration comprises estimating a gas species concentration for at least one gas species; and
wherein said calculating gas emission comprises calculating destruction removal efficiency (DRE) of the flare based on the estimated gas species concentration for the at least two gas species, a measured mass flow rate in the hydrocarbon feed line, and a measured gas composition in the hydrocarbon feed line.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the flame is emitted from the flare, wherein the flare is fed by a hydrocarbon feed line;
wherein said estimating a gas species concentration comprises estimating a gas species concentration for at least two gas species; and
wherein said calculating gas emission comprises calculating combustion efficiency (CE) of the flare based on the estimated gas species concentration for the at least two gas species.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein said estimating a spectral path length comprises:
estimating regional boundaries of the flame in each of the captured images within a virtual bounding volume based on thresholding techniques;
for a captured image received from one of the image-capturing cameras, estimating a spectral path length for each pixel within the estimated regional boundaries of the flame based on a width of the estimated regional boundaries of the flame for a captured image from another of the image-capturing devices; and
for the captured image received from the one of the multispectral cameras, estimating a path length of each pixel outside of the estimated regional boundaries of the flame based on a width of the virtual bounding volume.

12. The process of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the image-capturing devices is transiently positioned with respect to the flame;
wherein the method further comprises determining a position of the at least one image-capturing device at a time when the image from that image-captured device is captured.

13. A process for calculating gas emission for a flame of a combustion process in an open combustion environment, comprising:
receiving a captured image from each of a plurality of image capturing devices in at least one selected spectral band, wherein each of the plurality of image capturing devices is trained on the flame from the combustion process from a different perspective view angle, wherein the combustion process comprises a flare or a field of flares, wherein the flame is emitted from a burner of the flare, wherein the flare is fed by a hydrocarbon feed line;
estimating a spectral path length of the flame in the at least one spectral band from the captured images;
estimating emitted radiance of the flame from the captured images;
estimating a temperature of the flame from the estimated emitted radiance;
estimating a gas species concentration of the flame from the estimated temperature of the flame and the estimated spectral path length of the flame;
measuring a mass flow rate and a gas composition in the hydrocarbon feed line; and
calculating gas emission for the flame from the estimated gas species concentration and based on the measured mass flow rate and gas composition.

14. A process for calculating gas emission for a flame of a combustion process in an open combustion environment, comprising:
receiving a captured image from each of a plurality of image capturing devices in at least one selected spectral band, wherein each

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Kraus Kurt
• Martin Matthew
• Au Kwong Wing
• Venkatesha Sharath

Classifications

• G01N9/24

  by observing the transmission of wave or particle radiation through the material · CPC title

• G01J2005/0077

  Imaging · CPC title

• G01N2021/8578

  Gaseous flow · CPC title

• G01J5/602

  using selective, monochromatic or bandpass filtering · CPC title

• G01N21/72

  using flame burners · CPC title