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FLIR APPLICATIONSTORY
Waste incineration plant in Bblingen, Germany
Solid waste management is a crucial sectorin our consumer
society. It is a USD 43- bil-lion-industry and growing as more
regions
experience positive economic growth andprosperity and
consequently produce morehousehold waste. At the same time,
legitimateenvironmental concerns push for an increas-ingly
streamlined waste disposal, treatment,neutralization and recycling
process. Thewaste has to be gathered, stored and proc-essed. As
supply (in this case places forstorage or processing of waste) is
scarce anddemand is increasing, economic laws of mar-ket and
efficiency increasingly apply to wastemanagement.
In densely populated West-European coun-tries, solid household
waste is collected and
carried to a waste incineration plant, ratherthan dumped
directly in landfill sites. Themost advanced incineration plants
use the
combustion heat to fuel up an adjacent waste-to-energy system,
which provides heating andpower to nearby residential areas.
The waste is therefore stored in so-calledwaste bunkers, which
contain thousands ofmetric tons of solid waste. This waste is
poten-tially flammable when stored: self-combustion,heat
development due to pressure, spontane-ous chemical reactions
between the dispos-als, methane gas-building, are potential
firecreators. Waste bunker fires can be hazard-ous for both
operator and environment: the
heavily contaminated firefighting water, whichhampers the
further processing of the waste,
FLIR Systems ThermoVision A40 ispreferred camera for fire
preventionand fire detection in solid waste bunkers
The infrared image shows hot-spots in the waste. Thismeans a
danger for spontaneous self-combustion andfire.
The ThermoVision A40 in its protective housing.
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has to be disposed as well. And firefightingdoes not always
reach potential fire spots stilldangerously smouldering somewhere
in thelarge and deep bunker. This is why the storedwaste has to be
permanently moved, mixedand turned by crane operators.
PREVENTINGFIRESWITHINFRARED
The need for fire prevention becomes evenmore acute for
installations with a waste shred-der: sparks from shredding metal
and othersolid parts compound with methane gases,resulting in an
explosive cocktail scatteringaround the entire waste bunker.
Consequently, fire prevention and fire detec-tion are important
issues for waste storage
and management. While most national orregional legislators
stipulate that fire preven-tion ought to be taken by the public or
privateplant operator, they generally do not clearlystate how.
Infrared cameras are excellent tools for bothfire prevention and
fire detection, providedthey offer some basic features that serve
thepurpose :
the ability to detect and clearly visualizenascent hot spots
through smoke and dust
measure and indicate temperature control pre-defined areas on a
permanent
basis raise an alarm when a temperature thresh-
hold is passed.
Fire prevention systems are installed byspecialized system
integrators. One suchleading integrator on the market is the
high-tech company m.u.t GmbH, based nearHamburg, Germany. m.u.t.
develops andmarkets photonics products for complexsolutions in the
medical, aerospace, secu-
rity and other sectors, and has specialized,among other things,
in early fire detection forair and land transportation carriers and
wasteincineration plants.
m.u.t. offers a complete solution includingplanning,
installation, software, hardware,and maintenance. It has installed
more than
forty infrared camera-based early fire detec-tion systems in
waste bunkers across Europe.Preliminary planning is the hardest
part ofthe job, says Werner Hagedorn, AccountManager for the early
fire detection products,we have to define the best place to
installthe camera, divide the entire waste bunker inzones and
ensure that for example the mini-mum surface of 30x30 cm to detect
hot spotsthat is advised by some regional legislators, iscovered by
the camera.
THERMOVISION A40 MONITORSWASTEBUN-
KERSCONSTANTLY
m.u.t has chosen the FLIR Systems ThermoVisionA40-M fix-mounted
camera for all its wastebunker installations. The A40 offers a
spectral
range of 7.5 to 13 m, which allows to lookthrough smoke and
dust. Its 320x240 pixeluncooled microbolometer detector
providesexcellent thermal sensitivity and clear infraredimaging.
Visual Basic/ C++ and LabViewsoftware development kits enable
customersa smooth application integration. m.u.t hassuccessfully
made use of these facilities to inte-grate the A40 camera into
ARTUS, its wastebunker early fire detection software suite.
One ThermoVision A40 camera, mountedon a pan stilt and placed in
an appropriate
protective housing, is able to inspect a surfaceof up to 2,000
sq m. The camera registers thesurface temperature of the waste,
comparingit to the maximum temperature defined by thewaste bunker
operator.
The m.u.t. engineers divide the bunker surfacein zones which
depend on the size of thewaste bunker. The camera checks every
zonesubsequently and its FireWire output providestemperature
information and infrared imag-ing to the crane operators monitor
screen inreal-time. The operator is also able to steer the
camera from his working place. Three alarmlevels marked by
visual as well as soundalarms warn the crane operator of
substantialtemperature differences on the waste surfacein a
particular zone. The waste is then mixedand turned, transferred to
another zone, orcarried directly to the oven for combustion.
Although every infrared camera detector pixelmeasures a
temperature value, the m.u.t engi-neers have chosen a temperature
measure-ment, based on a 3x3 pixel grid. They consid-
ered 2x2 pixels as inadequate and uncertain.3x3 pixel secures
additional measurementaccuracy and consequently a clearer
imagecontrast, while excluding false alarms, saysVolker Meliss,
Marketing Director at m.u.t.
The ThermoVision A40 does all the mea-surements, says Hagedorn,
and its thermalsensitivity and measurement accuracy areexcellent.
But above all there is no need fora camera with a cooled detector
for suchapplications as waste bunker inspections: theA40-M has an
uncooled detector and needs
virtually no specific maintenance. And thatmakes infrared
monitoring of waste processingas well as in many other industrial
applicationsaffordable.
Acknowledgements to Joachim Sarfels, Area Sales Manager at
FLIR Germany, for establishing contacts and providing suppor
t
The waste bunker surface is divided in zones. TheThermoVision
A40 checks every zone subsequently.
The control room of a waste bunker. If the ThermoVisionA40
detects a hot spot an alarm will go off.
For further information contact:
FLIR SYSTEMSAB
World Wide Thermography CenterRinkebyvgen 19SE-182 11
DanderydSwedenTel.: +46 (0)8 753 25 00Fax: +46 (0)8 753 23
64e-mail: [email protected]
