Pyrolysis Profile From Run With Walnut Shells - 6/30/09
Our in house testing GEK now has an installed "wand" of thermocouples in the pyrolysis zone, along with thermocouples at "combustion" (1 inch in front of an air nozzle), top of the reduction cone and bottom of the reduction cone (1 inch into the bottom of the cone).
This graph shows the vertical distribution of temperatures (y-axis) with time (x-axis). Start of the graph shows ignition of the reactor.
The color scheme leaves something to be desired, but very small spots of light yellow are above 1000°C, stepping down in 100°C increments.
The wand is comprised of a central 1/8" probe for combustion, with 1/16" TC probes at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 inches. A thin stainless tube was also brought down to combustion to monitor the vacuum at that point. The 1/16" probes were spaced apart with alumina beads to limit thermal conduction. The combustion probe was protected with a piece of alumina tubing.
The installed wand.
The R function used to produce the graph:
ContourMap <- function(plot_start=0,plot_end=2000) {
cont<- c(25,100,200,300,400,500,600,700,800,900,1000,1100,1200) cont_col<-c("#FFFFFF","#AA887F","#BB7866","#CC684C","#DD5833","#EE4819","#ff3800","#ff6500","#ff7e00","#ff932c","#ffa54f","#ffb46b","#ffc184") par(xaxt="n") ## don't plot x-axis filled.contour(x=seq(plot_start,plot_end),y=c(-8.5,-2.5,0,1,2,3,4,6,8),z=matrix(data=c(T_bred[plot_start:plot_end],T_tred[plot_start:plot_end],T_comb[plot_start:plot_end],T_1in[plot_start:plot_end],T_2in[plot_start:plot_end],T_3in[plot_start:plot_end],T_4in[plot_start:plot_end],T_6in[plot_start:plot_end],T_8in[plot_start:plot_end]),ncol=9,nrow= (plot_end-plot_start+1)),levels=cont,col=cont_col,xlab="Time [min]",ylab="Position [in]",key.title="T [°C]")
abline(h=0)
abline(h=-2.5)
abline(h=-8.5)
text(x=plot_start,y=0.25,labels="Combustion",pos=4)
text(x=plot_start,y=-2.25,labels="Top Reduction",pos=4)
text(x=plot_start,y=-8.25,labels="Bottom Reduction",pos=4)
par(xaxt="s") ## plot x-axis
axis(1,at=seq(from=plot_start,to=plot_end,by=60*10),labels=seq(from=(plot_start/60),to=(plot_end/60),by=10)) ## plot x-axis in minutes }