No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Engine manufacturers and researchers in the United States are finding growing interest among customers in the use of opportunity fuels such as syngas from the gasification and pyrolysis of biomass and biogas from anaerobic digestion of biomass. Once adequately cleaned, the most challenging issue in utilizing these opportunity fuels in engines is that their compositions can vary from site to site and with time depending on feedstock and process parameters. At present, there are no identified methods that can measure the composition and heating value in real-time. Key fuel properties of interest to the engine designer/researcher such as heating value, laminar flame speed, stoichiometric air to fuel ratio and Methane Number can then be determined. This paper reports on research aimed at developing a real-time method for determining the composition of a variety of opportunity fuels and blends with natural gas. Interfering signals from multiple measurement sources are processed collectively using multivariate regression methods, such as, the principal components regression and partial least squares regression to predict the composition and energy content of the fuel blends. The accuracy of the method is comparable to gas chromatography.

This report is submitted to the United States Department of Energy in partial fulfillment of the contractual requirements for Phase I of the project titled, "Real Time Flame Monitoring of Gasifier Burner and Injectors", under cooperative agreement number DE-FS26-02NT41585. The project is composed of three one-year budget periods. The work in each year is divided into separate Tasks to facilitate project management, orderly completion of all project objectives, budget control, and critical path application of personnel and equipment. This Topical Report presents results of the Task 1 and 2 work. The 2 D optical sensor was developed to monitor selected UV and visible wavelengths to collect accurate flame characterization information regarding mixing, flame shape, and flame rich/lean characteristic. Flame richness, for example, was determined using OH and CH intensity peaks in the 300 to 500 nanometer range of the UV and visible spectrum. 7 OH*, CH*, and OH*/CH* Images From Flames of 0% Excess Air (nozzle size shown).