Can anybody help?
We are looking at a project at work to do some checks on a furnace atmosphere, but spend is tricky as the research has a good chance of not yielding
an answer to our problem!!
Basically in a nutshell what I need to do is to measure (accurately) the oxygen % in a furnace flue, between 0 and 20% oxygen, at a temperature
ranging from 250 degrees C to 600 degrees C, and have that measurement output in a "loggable" fashion, so that we can trend it over a couple
of weeks and display the results in Excel chart form......................................................................I need to do this on a
budget of approximately 2 pence and a couple of digestive biscuits, hence putting the question on here!!!
There are commercial solutions available but the probes alone are over £1000.
I was wondering whether it would be possible to use a heated exhaust gas oxygen sensor from an automotive exhaust application, but I'm not sure
on the oxygen % range that these can cover, and what they need in terms of inputs, outputs and signal conditioning. If I could just give 12v input etc
and take a millivolt output into my datalogger then that would be perfect, but I am sure life won't be that simple will it?? I'll presumably
need a calibration curve for a start as the output of these zirconia sensors is not at all linear is it?
Any ideas?
[Edited on 28/3/06 by NS Dev]
If I were you Id look at a wideband lambda sensor on lambdasensor.com - they're SO much cheaper than they were a few years ago...
It might have enough range of measurement to be useful to you?
Problem is they wear out quite fast and so you'd have to renew fairly frequently depending on flow, temp and particulate content - as far as I
can tell anyway...
The narrow band ones are only really suitable for measuring stoich for petrol combustion since either side of stoich on narrow band sensors the
voltage output changes exponentially.
Failing that - how about RS components?
Geoff
Anybody tell me or give me a link to somewhere that can give a table/plot of millivolt sensor output vs oxygen % for a Bosch Wideband sensor!
look into the mega squirt forums - then look at the, errm, damn, wideband logger that bill shurvington is importing - can't think of the name. In
fact contact bill, he's a nice bloke and this might interest him.
Inovate ? might be the name of the product.
quote:
Originally posted by NS Dev
Anybody tell me or give me a link to somewhere that can give a table/plot of millivolt sensor output vs oxygen % for a Bosch Wideband sensor!
I'm sure i've seen flue gas analysers for hire, some where like Hire Centre.
Not sure if the range would go high enough but the Flue Gas analysers for commercial boilers are nearer £400 than £1000 (not sure on the data logging
other than a small print out and peak hold)
Look for the specs a TESTO unit will cope with
Sounds like you need an LC-1
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/lc1.php
OK its £135'ish but has programmable outputs which you can setup as you like.
Also be good for setting up your XE's after 
Documentation is also really good.
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/support/manual/11-0053%20LC-1_
Manual_1.5.pdf
Also, at least with that you could sell it easily for ~£100 on eBay or here.
[Edited on 28/3/06 by the_fbi]
Have a look at this site for all sorts of gas analysers
http://www.picotech.com/
they do cheap data logging kit, seems like there might be a solution floating round in all of this
quote:
Originally posted by MkIndy7
I'm sure i've seen flue gas analysers for hire, some where like Hire Centre.
Not sure if the range would go high enough but the Flue Gas analysers for commercial boilers are nearer £400 than £1000 (not sure on the data logging other than a small print out and peak hold)
Look for the specs a TESTO unit will cope with