Spectral Analysis of Flame Emission for Optimization of Combustion Devices on Marine Vessels

Abstract: Chemiluminescent emission from OH', CH' and C2' radicals and its dependence on the equivalence ratio is being investigated in the current study. The aim of this project is to use the results for combustion control on marine vessels and safety checks. The study was conducted in collaboration with Kockumation, a leading company in developing control systems for running boilers and steam turbines on marine vessels. Experiments were conducted at laboratory burners as well as an industrial burner, similar to the one that Kockumation uses. A new detection system for flame monitoring was suggested after the evaluation of the current detectors. The use of photodiodes were proven to be more reliable in detecting the chemiluminescent emission across a wide wavelength range (from UV to near IR region). Furthermore, after the analysis of the data, the CH'/OH' intensity ratio was evaluated as a calibration model for the prediction of the equivalence ratio. In addition to this, the partial least square regression (PLS-R) based multivariate calibration model was tested and the two models were compared. The latter model showed better accuracy in predicting Φ values. New experiments are also suggested for the investigation of additional species that are involved in the combustion process and the further optimization of combustion devices on marine vessels.