Tliis invention relates to a method for measuring temperature, molecular densities and molecular composition or any combination thereof, in gases and/or flames in melting and/or combustion processes.

Conventional gas analysis methods using IR-paramagnetic- and masspectrometer technology need a psychical contact with the gas to be analysed. This means that the gas have to be cooled before entering the analyser which may affect the results of the measurements. .Another disadvantage with conventional gas analysers is that they can not simultaneously measure the temperature of the gas and analyse the gas.

It is known that the attenuation of a continuum radio signal can be used to recover the amount of black smoke in exhaust fumes, .JP 60-64234. This patent method does not determine any molecular content, nor does it determine any temperature.

It is also known that the changes in refractive index of flying ash can be used to determine the carbon content therein, WO 90/03568. This patent method does not distinguish between molecular species and does not measure any spectral lines or determine molecular densities, configuration, or temperature.

It is also known attenuation and reflection in the exhaust fumes from a reaction engine can be used to determine changes in the exhaust fume composition, WO 90/03568. This method does not determine any molecular species or temperature.

It is also known that the existence of a specific molecular specie can be decided if the molecular gas is first mixed with a drive gas and then injected into a cavity chamber, patent US-A-5124 653. The cavity is then adjusted to the wavelength of the molecular transition and the molecular gas is excited by injecting a radio signal. The radio transmitter is then turned off .and the molecule will emit at its specific frequency if it is present. This method measures a

single molecular line at the time and can only detect the molecular species for which it is specifically adjusted. This method does not measure the temperature or the molecular density within the process since the molecular gas has to be taken out of the process-room to the special cavity and the gas is also contaminated with a drive gas.

None of the above patents discloses, discusses, or makes possible the simultaneous determination of a multiple of molecular lines and species or can determine molecular densities and temperature in a working melting process or combustion process without any interaction with the gas flow.

Changes in the pattern of electromagnetic wave fronts represent the most sensitive probes in physics. Electromagnetic waves may penetrate media of varying physical properties, changing its amplitude and phase in a way which is specific to the content of the media. Thus molecular gas will emit or absorb electromagnetic radiation mainly depending on its density, the physical temperature, or the radiation field in the area where the gas resides. Continuum radiation will also be affected when penetrating a media in the sense that the amplitude will be attenuated and the propagation velocity will change, resulting in a sudden change of phase in the interface area. The radioband is of particular interest in that here waves can penetrate deeper into dusty areas and also detect and measure complicated molecules by their rotational transitions.

It is an object of the invention to provide an accurate and reliable method to analyse a gas and to determine the temperature of a gas directly in an industrial process without physical contact with the gas that is being analysed and without disturbing the gas and the process.

The invention will be described more closely with reference to the drawings.

Fig 1 shows an experimental set up.

Fig 2 shows schematically a more sofisticated apparatures.

Fig 3 is a top view of the apparatures in fig 2.

Each molecular species has its own fingerprint in the form of a spectrum of lines, in the radio domain mainly determined by the quantified transitions between vibrational- and/or rotational states. Molecular lines in the atmosphere are very much broadened due to the relatively high

pressure. The most significant exception is if the molecular flow is highly directive, e.g. if we are looking through the flow at an angle perpendicular to that of the flow. In that case the pressure broadening will be much less and molecular lines can be well separated. This exception is the case for the gas flow in chimneys or through the gas flow from any burning process if viewed across the flow.

The invention can be best described with an experimental set-up shown in Figure 1. Here a chimney (11) is made out of ceramic material, chrome-magnesite and charmotte, and covered with steel. The chimney has an opening (12) for an oil burner. The steel cover has two opposite windows (13), with intact ceramic materiel. Outside the windows (13) and in line with the windows are two parabolic antennas (14,15). One of the parabola is connected to a transmitter (16) and the other parabola (15) is connected to a receiver (17). The transmitter consists of a signal generator which is stepped in frequency over a wide frequency band. The received signal is compared with the transmitted signal in a cross-correlator (18) connected to a computer (19).

The received signal consists of a number of spectral lines emitted from the gas inside the chimney overlaid on the background transmitted signal. The transmitted signal is used to calibrate the frequency response of the system and the attenuation through the chimney walls by looking at the received signal between the molecular lines. This baseline will then be subtracted from the received signal and the intensities of the molecular spectral lines can be determined as calibrated inside the chimney.

The system is further calibrated by measuring the signal transmitted through the chimney as a function of frequency when the chimney is emty.

The registered spectrum is stored in a computer. A database is searched for known lines which coincides in frequency with maxima within the observed spectrum. Thereafter a Gaussian model fit is made to the line in order to determine the amplitude, frequency, and line width. A line is considered to be detected if the amplitude of the Gaussian fitted line is more than three times the calculated noise level. The measured amplitudes are then calibrated to an absolute temperature scale.

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If a number of lines from the same molecular specie can be detected, then the relative population of the various energy levels may be determined. This relation is mainly determined by the physical temperature of the gas and the density of the molecular specie as: N _u /g _u = N _rot /Q(T _rot ) e" ^{Eu τ} rot where N _u is the number of molecules in the upper energy level of the transition, g _u is the statistical weight of the transition, E _u is the energy of the upper energy level in Kelvin, Q is the rotational constant. T _rol is physical temperature, in the case of burning processes where the excitation is dominated by collisions due to the high temperature, and N _rot is the column density of the molecules of this particular specie. N _u /g _u is directly proportional to the intensity integrated over the spectral line and can therefore be measured. If a number of spectral lines from a molecule are available, then both the density (if the path length is known) and the physical temperature (if the molecule is predominantly collision excited) can be determined simultaneously. If lines from other molecules are also present, then also the densities of these molecules may be measured from the intensity of a single molecular line.

The radio antenna can also consist of an interferometer where the elements are radio horn antennas mounted in a plane (31,32) and with properly adjusted delay lines as shown in Figure 2. Then the two dimensional distribution of molecular densities and temperature can be reconstructed by transforming from the aperture (u,v) plane to the image plane.

If then the system consists of interferometers (32) which are looking into the processroom or exhaust channel from different angles as is shown in Figure 3, then the densities and the temperature may also be recovered in three dimensions by a Radon transform, similar to what is used in computer tomography. Such a system can recover the temperature distribution in three dimensions within a hot gas (or a flame). It can also, which will be more important, simultaneously recover the three dimensional density distribution of each delectable molecular specie. These measurement are also performed without any physical probe since the radio signal may, as indeed was the case in our pilot experiment, that will be described penetrate through the ceramic wall of the chimney.

In the apparatus shown in Fig 2, an experiment was carried out. An oxy/oil burner was installed and was burning in a steady state.

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Fig. 4 shows the spectrum observed in the radioband 20-40 GHz through the flow in the chimney. Most of these lines come from SO ₂ , some others from NH ₃ and other molecules. It is therefore clearly possible to detect molecules within the radioband in gas flows on earth. As a consequence it is then also possible to make images of such a flow. Fig. 5 shows the identifications of some of the lines from one observations. Using SO2 as a tracer it was possible to determine the temperature as well as the density of SO ₂ as function of time.

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