Recovery Act - Inexpensive, Robust, Wireless, Fourier-Transform Sensor to Improve the Energy Efficiency of Petroleum Refineries

Many opportunities exist within petroleum refineries to reduce energy consumption while maintaining or enhancing plant productivity. While process control systems are available for many processes found in petroleum refineries, there is a lack of inexpensive, robust devices that can perform chemical analysis in-line and in real-time. This lack is primarily due to the complexity and cost of optical sensors suited for the demanding environments of petroleum refineries. A lack of such sensors may prohibit process efficiency improvements and the meeting of future regulatory demands. Translume proposes to develop an inexpensive, robust, wirelessly networked, Fouriertransform spectrometer operating in the extended near infrared. This MEMS-type spectrometer, designed for in-situ monitoring, will be fabricated using our proprietary direct-write femtosecond laser based processes. The interferometric stage and the optical position sensor that are at the core of our spectrometer are fabricated from a single glass monolith, a demonstrated means to produce exceptional robust optical sensors. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Refineries spend typically 50% of cash operating costs (excluding capital costs and depreciation) on energy, making energy a major cost factor and also an important opportunity for cost reduction. Translume