| Criteria pollutant regulations, climate change concerns, and energy conservation efforts are placing strict constraints in the design and operation of advanced, stationary combustion systems. To ensure minimal pollutant emissions and maximal efficiency at every instant of operation while preventing reaction blowout, combustion systems need to react and adapt in real-time to external changes. This study describes the development, demonstration, and evaluation of a multivariable feedback control system, designed to maximize the performance of natural gas-fired combustion systems.; A feedback sensor array was developed to monitor reaction stability and measure combustion performance as a function of NOx, CO, and O, emissions. Acoustic and UV chemiluminescent emissions were investigated for use as stability indicators. Modulated signals of CH* and CO2* chemiluminescence were found to correlate well with the onset of lean blowout. A variety of emissions sensors were tested and evaluated, including conventional CEMS', micro-fuel cells, a zirconia NOx transducer, and a rapid response predictive NOx sensor based on UV flame chemiluminescence.; A dual time-scale controller was designed to actively optimize operating conditions by maximizing a multivariable performance function J using a linear direction set search algorithm. The controller evaluated J under slow, quasi steady-state conditions, while dynamically monitoring the reaction zone at high speed for pre-blowout instabilities or boundary condition violations.; To establish the input control parameters, two burner systems were selected: a 30 kW air-swirl, generic research burner, and a 120 kW scaled, fuel-staged, industrial boiler burner. The parameters, chosen to most affect burner performance, consisted of air swirl intensity and excess air for the generic burner, and fuel-staging and excess air for the boiler burner. A set of optimization parameters was also established to ensure efficient and deterministic optimization.; The active control system was demonstrated and evaluated by optimizing the burners under practical conditions. In most cases, the controller was able to locate, within 10–15 min, a global performance peak that simultaneously minimized emissions and maximized system efficiency within specified stability limits. The active controller demonstrated flexibility and robustness by (a) successfully optimizing different burners for different J functions, initial conditions, and sensor combinations, and (b) successfully reoptimizing a burner under the effect of simulated window fouling and following sudden inlet perturbations, including load cycling and a misaligned fuel injector. |
