Land – NIR – Borescope – Temperature Profiles inside Furnaces

Technical Details

Application

• Glass Melt Tanks
• Reformer Tube Furnaces
• Reheat Furnaces
• Cement Kilns

Glass Melt Tanks

It is desirable to monitor the conditions inside glass melt tanks for a number of reasons. The operator will always want to gather as much information as possible to improve his/her understanding of the process and the temperatures involved.

There are several aspects most operators would like to monitor within the tanks. One is the crown and wall temperatures of the furnace to help ensure that the refractory is not overheating and running at temperatures which could cause damage to the furnace. Another is to monitor the blanket (or melt line).

Monitoring the conditions inside glass melt tanks has traditionally utilized visual camera technology and manual inspections. Both of these techniques have inherent problems.

Visual cameras:

DO NOT give a true temperature reading. There is no guarantee of accuracy meaning aligning the process to run to optimum performance based on this information will not be successful and could result in overheating or inefficient combustion. The radiometric image can be presented to appear to simulate the visual camera view the operator may be accustomed to working with.

Manual inspections are also widely used. Manual inspections have a number of weaknesses:

• They are labour intensive and time consuming.
• Often taking hours to complete everyday and requiring multiple staff members.
• Inherently possess a risk to the operator of having to spend extended periods of time within the application environment.
• Different operators will naturally take the temperatures readings from slightly different points. Therefore the data collected will not necessarily be suitable for building trend information.

The NIR Borescope can give the operator access to data which would have previously been either highly time consuming to collect or perhaps completely unknown. Through collecting this data the operator can begin to increase the efficiency of the furnace, improving product quality and reducing process costs.

Using LIPS the operator has the ability to set points or areas of interest and measure live data points as well as storing and trending this data for future analysis.  By monitoring the blanket (or melt line), live video can allow the operator to configure the correct, most efficient firing pattern and achieve optimum performance from the burners. This can save significant costs through reducing fuel usage and gaining the best possible performance from the furnace.

The NIR-b offers the operator numerous advantages over the existing techniques:

• The operator gets a high resolution radiometric image of the process meaning a live temperature value can be obtained from any point on the image.
• Automated alarm outputs can instantly alert the user to any problems within the process
• Any air leaks and glass leaks, which are detrimental to the efficiency of the furnace are clearly visible and simple to detect
• A clear profile of the flame is easily visible
• The operator has access to more than 324,000 live temperature data points
• Thermocouple can alert to product overheating
• Coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Improve plant safety by removing personnel from the application environment
• Monitor all positions from the safety of the control room
• Long term data trending
• Fuel optimisation meaning significant savings on gas

Reformer Tube Furnaces

By viewing inside the furnace the operator can take temperature information from various points of each tube in order to monitor the tube condition. This information can be used to check for hot spots appearing and trended over time to identify potential problem areas.

maximise their knowledge of the temperatures involved within the process for several reasons:

Prolonging the life of the tube

• The tubes used within the process are extremely expensive. Made specifically for the application the cost of a single tube can be £10,000 with each furnace using hundreds of tubes. Running the process over temperature will drastically reduce the lifetime of the tubes meaning the tubes will need replacing more often or faults can occur leading to super heated steam escaping into the process.

Reducing down time and tube replacement

• Replacing the tubes requires the purchase of replacements and stopping the process for the work to be completed. This downtime is extremely expensive and can, on a large plant, cost up to £1m per day!

Running at maximum efficiency

• Through improving their knowledge of the process the operator is able to ensure that the temperatures involved are correct for the most efficient use of the furnace. This has several benefits, first it will ensure the maximum level of reaction in the process and secondly, it can maximise fuel efficiency and so reduce costt.

Reduce risk of catastrophic failure

• Closely monitoring the condition of the tubes within the furnace can allow early identification of any potential hot spot or weaknesses. This can allow preventative action to be taken before the problem becoming serious.

The NIR Borescope can give the operator access to data which would have previously been either highly time consuming to collect or perhaps completely unknown. Through collecting this data the operator can begin to increase the efficiency of the furnace, improving product quality and reducing process costs.  By setting data points in the software the operator can ensure that the data is taken from exactly the same point every measurement and remove human error.

Through better understanding the temperature the operator can monitor the tubes and ensure they are within the specified limits thus greatly increasing the life time of the tube and the period between expensive downtime periods. The operator will also be able to maximise combustion efficiency and so reduce fuel costs and maximise output.

The NIR-b offers the operator numerous advantages over the existing techniques:

• The operator gets a high resolution radiometric image of the process meaning a live temperature value can be obtained from any point on the image.
• Automated alarm outputs can instantly alert the user to any problems within the process
• A clear profile of the flame is easily visible
• The operator has access to more than 324,000 live temperature data points
• Thermocouple can alert to product overheating
• Coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Improve plant safety by removing personnel from the dangerous environment of the application
• Monitor all positions from the safety of the control room
• Long term data trending

Reheat Furnaces

By viewing inside the furnace the operator can take temperature information from relevant points and trend the data. The operator will need to know:

• That the burners are working correctly and consistently.
• The condition of the furnace walls
• Temperature information of the product as it moves through the process

The operator will want to maximise their knowledge of the temperatures involved within the process for several reasons:

• Reducing downtime
• Running at maximum efficiency
• Maximise combustion
• Reduce fuel costs
• Prolong furnace life

The NIR Borescope can give the operator access to data which would have previously been either highly time consuming to collect or perhaps completely unknown. Through collecting this data the operator can begin to increase the efficiency of their process, improving product quality and reducing costs.

By setting data points in the software the operator can ensure that the data is taken from exactly the same point every measurement and remove human error. The operator will also be able to maximise combustion efficiency and so reduce fuel costs and maximise output.

The NIR-b offers the operator numerous advantages over the existing techniques:

• The operator gets a high resolution radiometric image of the process meaning a live temperature value can be obtained from any point on the image.
• Automated alarm outputs can instantly alert the user to any problems within the process
• A clear profile of the flame is easily visible
• The operator has access to more than 324,000 live temperature data points
• Thermocouple can alert to product overheating
• Coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Improve plant safety by removing personnel from the dangerous environment of the application
• Monitor all positions from the safety of the control room
• Long term data trending

Cement Kiln – Burning Zone

The NIR Borescope can give the operator access to data which would have previously been either highly time consuming to collect or perhaps completely unknown. Through collecting this data the operator can begin to increase the efficiency of their process, improving product quality and reducing costs.

Resource & Download

		807427 – LIPS NIR_b Software User Guide		Download File (3.24 MB)
		NIR Boroscopica		Download File (1.09 MB)
		807346 NIR BoreScope – Installation Guide Issue 4		Download File (6.89 MB)
		NIR-Borescope sales presentation		Download File (3.94 MB)
		NIR_BoreScope July 2012		Download File (1.13 MB)