Device and method for gasifying carbon-containing fuels

Abstract

A method for operating a device for gasifying carbon-containing fuels and a corresponding device are provided. The gasification of the carbon-containing fuels provokes a flame. The emission spectrum of the flame is registered and evaluated continuously in real time by a multi-variant method and an evaluation model that is previously recorded.

1 .- 16 . (canceled) 
     
     
         17 . A method for operating a device for gasifying carbon-containing fuels, comprising:
 recording an emission spectrum of a flame lead by the gasification; and   evaluating the emission spectrum in real time with a multi-variant method and with a previously stored evaluation model by an evaluation unit.   
     
     
         18 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the emission spectrum is evaluated in a range from ultraviolet radiation to infrared radiation. 
     
     
         19 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the emission spectrum is recorded in a range from 300 nm to 2000 nm, or in a range from 300 nm to 800 nm. 
     
     
         20 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , further comprising determining a flame temperature from the emission spectrum. 
     
     
         21 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein at least one spectral range in which an emission line of an ash component lies is evaluated from the emission spectrum. 
     
     
         22 . The method as claimed in  claim 21 , wherein the ash component comprises an alkali metal. 
     
     
         23 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein, the evaluation model is determined by:
 recording spectra with known operating parameters,   storing the spectra with the known operating parameters together in a memory,   classifying the spectra with the known operating parameters by statistics of the multi-variant method comprising primary component analysis, partial least squares regression, partial least squares discriminant analysis PLSDA, cluster analysis, or artificial neural networks,   wherein the evaluation model assigns the known operating parameters to a specific spectrum.   
     
     
         24 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the emission spectrum recorded in operation is assigned by the evaluation model to a known spectrum with known operating parameters for determining current operating parameters. 
     
     
         25 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , further comprising determining current operating parameters, wherein the current operating parameters comprise:
 a distinction as to whether the device is being operated with gas to maintain pressure, or in a gasification mode with input material flame based on the fuels that provoke different spectra,   a total content of anorganic materials that produce slag based on spectral lines through light-emitting/absorbing metals,   a flame temperature, and   a combustion stochiometry.   
     
     
         26 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the emission spectrum is normalized in the evaluation unit before a spectral analysis to a peak height, a spectral integral, or a signal height for a definable wavelength. 
     
     
         27 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the emission spectrum is smoothed in the evaluation unit before a spectral analysis by one or more of the following measures:
 a distance of outliers according to a threshold method,   a Savitzky-Golay method, and   a Kalman filter.   
     
     
         28 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , further comprising performing a parallel measurement of the emission spectrum by a spectrometer, wherein the spectrometer performs a wavelength dispersion and maps the wavelength dispersion to a parallel-measuring line detector in which each pixel measures a specific wavelength interval. 
     
     
         29 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein effects of flame flickering are reduced by a measurement time or by a number of short measurements, wherein the measurement time is selected that is long in relation to a flicker frequency, and wherein the number of short measurements are recorded at time intervals comparable to a time constant of the flame flickering and are averaged before the evaluating. 
     
     
         30 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the evaluation unit determines whether the emission spectrum lies in a range of a measurement of a spectrometer, wherein a spectrometer parameter is reset if an overexposure or an underexposure is present in the measurement, and wherein the spectrometer parameter comprises a measurement time or a number of multiple measurements. 
     
     
         31 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 , further comprising monitoring an integrity of an optical path by a shape of the emission spectrum. 
     
     
         32 . A device for gasifying carbon-containing fuels, comprising:
 a memory for storing an evaluation model; and   an evolution unit for performing the method according to  claim 17 .