Why Monitor Flue Gas?
Ideally, every burner should mix a precise ratio of air and fuel, and the fuel should burn
stoichiometrically to yield only heat, water vapor and carbon dioxide. In reality, this rarely happens.
Burners age, mixing is imperfect, colorific value of fuel varies, firing rates change, and the weather
changes from day to day. Any of these factors can change the amount of air required for safe and
efficient combustion of fuel. Accurate flue gas analysis minimizes fuel costs and reduces pollution in
all combustion processes.
Self Calibrating with No Reference Gas
Accurate and reliable oxygen measurement has always been dependent upon tedious sensor
calibration and costly reference gases until now.
The OxyTrak 411 uses a patented miniaturized zirconia sensor with a sealed internal-reference
chamber to accurately determine flue gas oxygen content and rapidly respond to process changes
(see illustration above). This new sensor's unique design is self calibrating. The internal electrical
calibration of the sensor is performed automatically without the need for calibration gases.
The system works by pumping oxygen out of sealed reference chamber to establish a baseline
and then measuring the electrical charge as oxygen ions re-equalibrate back into the chamber
equal to oxygen partial pressure in the flue gas. The electrical charge measured is directly
proportional to oxygen concentration.
In addition, the sensor's sealed internal-reference chamber eliminates the need for a reference gas.
If manual calibration verification is desired, a gas port is provided for a simple, one-gas, one-step
procedure, using air or other gases and remote or local user interfaces.
Applications
An in situ oxygen analyzer for:
- Utility boilers; natural gas or oil fired
- Process heaters; natural gas or oil fired
