It is very easy to achieve a smokeless fire without any special equipment for supervision. On the other hand, to achieve a smokeless fire and economic combustion will be a bit harder. The air supply has to be slightly in excess of the theoretical requirements. That is, the combustion air flow is reduced almost to the smoke limit. A plant that never shows traces of smoke at the chimney is not burning the fuel efficiently.
There are four instruments that will
help you to achieve the optimal combustion:
1. Smoke Density Monitor. High smoke density indicates uneconomical
combustion and it might also cause penalty from the environmental protecting
authorities.
2. O2 - Analyzer. High O2 content indicates heating of
unnecessary high quantity of combustion air.
3. CO - Analyzer. High CO content indicates unburned
hydrocarbons. This is not only uneconomical, the CO is also harmful to mans
health. Besides, mixed with air, CO might be an explosion risk.
4. CO2 - Analyzer. Low CO2 content indicates poor combustion, but
it doesn’t tell if more or less air is required.
The most important instrument, the Smoke Density Monitor, happened to be
the cheapest of them and you can’t do without it if you are trying to optimize
the combustion of your burners.
The equipment is very simple. A light beam is sent across the flue duct, from a light emitter to a light receiver. An electronic unit monitors the opacity. It indicates 0% if there is no black smoke present and 100% if the light beam is totally absorbed by the smoke. An alarm activates if the smoke density exceeds the preset limit.
The equipment is very simple. A light beam is sent across the flue duct, from a light emitter to a light receiver. An electronic unit monitors the opacity. It indicates 0% if there is no black smoke present and 100% if the light beam is totally absorbed by the smoke. An alarm activates if the smoke density exceeds the preset limit.
Some advises:
- The
smoke density meters light emitter and light receiver are normally
scavenged by sealing air to keep them free from soot. Therefore it would
be vise to install these units higher up in the flue duct than the
O2-analyzer to prevent the measured O2 value from being influenced by the
smoke density meters sealing air flow.
- Check
and clean the glasses of the smoke density meters light emitter and the
light receiver regularly.
- The
smoke density alarm should be overridden during the burners start and stop
sequences, since the opacity normally increases before the flame has
stabilized.
- Never
adjust the O2 content all the way down to zero unless you have facilities
to check the CO content.
- It might be worthwhile to spend a few minutes studying the diagram below.
SMOKE DENSITY METER IN BOILER
Reviewed by HODO
on
August 27, 2017
Rating: