A research team led by Prof. ZHANG Zhirong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has transformed traditional peroxide combustion into low oxygen combustion with self-developed technologies, reducing the degree of overheating and oxidation combustion loss rate greatly.

A closed-loop control model for automatic optimization of combustion process was established to realize intelligent online monitoring and optimal control of combustion efficiency.

In a complex thermophysical environment, this technology is of great significance for the measurement of gas combustion composition, high temperature field distribution and other parameters in the combustion furnace.

Based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy technology, the concentration of multi-component gases (O₂, CO, CO₂, H₂O) in the heating furnace under complex thermophysical environment was simultaneously measured online, providing key parameters for regulating and controlling of low oxygen combustion, low carbon emissions, etc.

With infrared thermal imaging technology and colorimetric temperature measurement technology, the dual optical path system structure was innovatively adopted, and the depth learning technology was used to realize real-time online automatic recognition, capture and full field temperature measurement of the workpiece in the furnace.

The model has realized combination of gas concentration and temperature control. It is based on the temperature distribution data, gas concentration data and exhaust gas emission data of the workpiece surface in the furnace, which were sent back to the combustion optimization control system to achieve low oxygen combustion control, and finally achieve online evaluation of combustion efficiency and intelligent optimization control.

The study, which started eight years ago, was conducted under a project aiming at combustion efficiency evaluation and regulation to provide technical support for the strategic goals of "peak carbon dioxide emissions" and "carbon neutrality".

Now this technology has been applied to dozens of combustion furnaces in metallurgy, petrochemical and other industries, reducing carbon emissions by tens of millions of tons, meeting the virtuous circle of low-carbon combustion, energy conservation and emission reduction, improving quality, improving efficiency, contributing to "carbon emission reduction", and generating great economic and social benefits.