Method for temperature data acquisition

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9897493-B2
Application number	US-201615084631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 30, 2016
Priority date	Mar 30, 2016
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

Abstract

A method for determining temperature information for a plurality of tubes in a furnace where one or more digital images provide temperature information for imaged tubes, and temperature information for non-imaged tubes is determined from the temperature information for the imaged tubes and measured temperatures of combined effluent from the imaged and non-imaged tubes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining temperature information on a plurality of tubes in a furnace, the method comprising:
capturing one or more digital images of an interior area of the furnace wherein the one or more digital images comprises pixel data associated with a subset of the plurality of tubes positioned inside the furnace;
identifying a plurality of imaged tubes in the subset of the plurality of tubes in the one or more digital images, the plurality of tubes comprising the imaged tubes and non-imaged tubes, the imaged tubes detected in the one or more digital images, the non-imaged tubes not detected in any of the one or more digital images;
processing a portion of the pixel data associated with the plurality of imaged tubes to obtain a value representing a measure of central tendency for at least a subset of the plurality of imaged tubes in the one or more digital images;
processing the value representing the measure of central tendency for at least the subset of the plurality of imaged tubes to obtain temperature information for at least the subset of the plurality of imaged tubes;
withdrawing an effluent from each of the plurality of tubes;
collecting the effluent withdrawn from each of the plurality of tubes in a plurality of secondary collection headers, each of the plurality of secondary collection headers operatively connected to a respective group of multiple groups of the plurality of tubes, the effluent collected in each secondary collection header forming a respective combined effluent in each secondary collection header;
passing the effluent collected in each respective secondary collection header to a primary collection header;
measuring a value relatable to a temperature of the combined effluent in one or more secondary collection headers of the plurality of secondary collection headers; and
processing the value representing the measure of central tendency for at least the subset of the plurality of imaged tubes and the value relatable to the temperature of the combined effluent in the one or more secondary collection headers to obtain temperature information for at least a subset of the non-imaged tubes of the plurality of tubes.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising measuring a value relatable to a temperature of the combined effluent for each of one or more additional secondary collection headers of the plurality of secondary collection headers;
wherein the value relatable to the temperature of the combined effluent for each of the one or more additional secondary collection headers is processed in the step of processing to obtain temperature information for at least the subset of the non-imaged tubes.

3. The method of claim 1
wherein the step of processing to obtain temperature information for at least the subset of the non-imaged tubes of the plurality of tubes comprises:
calculating a representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in a first tube row section, each imaged tube in the first tube row section operatively connected to a first secondary collection header wherein the effluent from each imaged tube in the first tube row section is combined in the first secondary collection header before the combined effluent is passed to the primary collection header, wherein the representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in the first tube row section is calculated from a correlation using the value representing the measure of central tendency for each imaged tube in the first tube row section, wherein the correlation provides representative effluent temperatures from values representing the measure of central tendency; and
processing the representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in the first tube row section and the value relatable to the temperature of the combined effluent in the one or more secondary collection headers;

wherein the step of measuring a value relatable to the temperature of the combined effluent in the one or more secondary collection headers comprises measuring a value relatable to a temperature of the combined effluent in the first secondary collection header.

4. The method of claim 3
wherein the step of processing to obtain temperature information for at least the subset of the non-imaged tubes of the plurality of tubes comprises:
calculating a representative effluent temperature for each non-imaged tube in a second tube row section operatively connected to the first secondary collection header, the representative effluent temperature for each non-imaged tube in the second tube row section calculated from the representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in the first tube row section.

5. The method of claim 3
wherein the step of processing to obtain temperature information for at least the subset of the non-imaged tubes of the plurality of tubes comprises:
calculating a representative effluent temperature for each non-imaged tube in a second tube row section operatively connected to a second secondary collection header, the representative effluent temperature for each non-imaged tube in the second tube row section calculated from the representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in the first tube row section;

wherein the step of measuring a value relatable to the temperature of the combined effluent in the one or more secondary collection headers further comprises measuring a value relatable to a temperature of the combined effluent in the second secondary collection header, wherein the effluent from each non-imaged tube in the second tube row section is combined in the second secondary collection header before the combined effluent is passed to the primary collection header.

6. The method of claim 1
wherein the step of processing to obtain temperature information for at least the subset of the non-imaged tubes of the plurality of tubes comprises:
calculating a representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in a first tube row section, each imaged tube in the first tube row section operatively connected to a first secondary collection header wherein the effluent from each imaged tube in the first tube row section is combined in the first secondary collection header before the combined effluent is passed to the primary collection header, wherein the representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in the first tube row section is calculated from a correlation using the value representing the measure of central tendency for each imaged tube in the first tube row section, wherein the correlation provides representative effluent temperatures from values representing the measure of central tendency; and
calculating a representative temperature for a combined effluent from the imaged tubes in the first tube row section using the representative effluent temperature for each imaged tube in the first tube row section;

wherein the step of measuring a value relatable to the temperature of the combined effluent in the one or more secondary collection headers comprises measuring a value relatable to a temperature of the combined effluent in the first secondary collection header; and
wherein the step of processing to obtain temperature information for at least the subset of the non-imaged tubes of the plurality of tubes further comprises:
calculating a representative temperature for a combined effluent from the non-imaged tubes in a second tube row section operatively connected to the first secondary collection header wherein the effluent from each non-imaged tube in the second tube row section is combined in the first secondary collection header before the combined effluent is passed to the primary collection header, wherein the representative temperature for the combined effluent from the non-imaged tubes in the second tube row section is calcu

Assignees

• Air Prod & Chem

Inventors

• Zhao Yan
• Kloosterman Jeffrey William
• Lunsford Jeremy Charles
• Li Xianming Jimmy

Classifications

• B01J19/2415

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• G01K13/02 Primary

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• G01J2005/0077

  Imaging · CPC title

• C01B2203/1241

  Natural gas or methane · CPC title

• C01B2203/0233

  the reforming step being a steam reforming step · CPC title