Monitoring of oxygen content in the flue gas at a coal-fired power plant using cloud modeling techniques

The accurate measurement of oxygen content in the flue gas at a coal-fired power plant is important for the plant operators to realize closed-loop and optimal control. In this paper, eight zirconium oxygen analyzers were used to measure the oxygen content in the flue gas under real plant conditions. A cloud model is incorporated into the measurement system. In consideration of the temporal and spatial characteristics of the oxygen sensors, a quantitative transformation fusion model based on the cloud model theory is established. The oxygen content in the flue gas is calculated using mean value, space fusion, and space-time fusion methods, respectively. The temperatures of both flue gas and cold air are also measured to calculate the heat loss of the flue gas and the combustion efficiency of the boiler. On-plant demonstration results show that the proposed method produces more accurate measurements than those from the mean value method, leading to increased combustion efficiency and reduced heat loss.