The objective of this project is to explore microwave-excited thermal-acoustic (META) phenomena for quantitative analysis of granular and powdered materials, with the culmination of the research to be an on-line carbon-in-ash monitor for coal-fired power plants. This technique of analyzing unburned carbon in fly ash could be a less tedious and time consuming method as compared to the traditional LOI manual procedure. Phase 1 of the research focused on off-line single-frequency thermal-acoustic measurements where an off-line fly ash monitor was constructed that could operate as analytical tool to explore instrument and methodology parameters for quantifying the microwave-excited thermal-acoustic effect of carbon in fly ash, and it was determined that the off-line thermal-acoustic technique could predict the carbon content of a random collection of fly ashes with a linear correlation constant of R(sup 2) = 0.778. Much higher correlations are expected for fly ashes generated from a single boiler. Phase 2 of the research developing a methodology to generate microwave spectra of various powders, including fly ash, coal, and inorganic minerals, and to determine if these microwave spectra could be used for chemical analyses. Although different minerals produced different responses, higher resolution microwave spectra would be required to be able to distinguish among minerals. Phase 3 of the research focused on the development of an on-line fly ash monitor that could be adapted to measure either a thermal-acoustic or thermal-elastic response to due microwave excitation of fly ash. The thermal-acoustic response was successfully employed for this purpose but the thermal-elastic response was too weak to yield a useful on-line device.
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