ADVANCED INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY FOR IMPROVED CHARACTERIZATIONOF CHEMICAL SYSTEMS

THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RUGGED, RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE, SENSITIVE AND VERSATILE DETECTOR FOR THE SIMULTANEOUS ON-LINE ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITION, CONCENTRATION AND TEMPERATURES OF GASES AND PARTICLES IN PROCESS STREAMS. THE INNOVATION IS PHASE SENSITIVE FOURIER TRANSFORM (PS-FT) SPECTROSCOPY, AND IT WILL: A) SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE THE NOISE IN MEASUREMENTS OF HOT STREAMS THAT ARE TURBULENT, INHOMOGENEOUS, OR CONTAIN PARTICLES; B) INCREASE THE LIMITS OF DETECTION IN A NOISE-FREE ENVIRONMENT; AND C) PROVIDE A SENSITIVE METHOD OFPERFORMING SPATIALLY RESOLVED MEASUREMENTS. PS-FT WILL EXPAND THE CAPABILITIES OF FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED (FT-IR) EMISSION AND TRANSMISSION (E/T) SPECTROSCOPY, A TECHNIQUE DEVELOPED AND PATENTED BY ADVANCED FUEL RESEARCH, INC. THIS PROPOSED PHASE I PROJECT WILL DEMONSTRATE THE CAPABILITIES OF PS-FTIR. THE PROJECT WILL IMPLEMENT THE TECHNIQUE BY MODIFYING A COMMERCIAL FT-IR AND WILL DEMONSTRATE THE REDUCTION OF NOISE FROM DETECTORS, THE REJECTION OF NOISE FROM SAMPLE STREAMS, AND THE APPLICATION OF A CROSSED BEAM TECHNIQUE FOR OBTAINING SPATIALLY RESOLVEDDATA.