Imaging-based size measurement of fine particles from industrial stacks

On-line continuous particle sizing plays a vital role in many industrial applications in various fields, for instance, particulate emission monitoring, drug delivery, atmosphere monitoring and painting [1]. The size, velocity and concentration of pulverized fuel used in an electric power plant are important parameters that affect both combustion efficiency, potentially increased safety risks and atmospheric emissions [2]. Nowadays, the design and implementation of an inexpensive and well-performed instrument for on-line continuous measurement of particulate emission remains a challenge in this area. This paper mainly focuses on the size distribution measurement of tiny particles, such as PM2.5, PM10 and so on. A novel imaging based system is proposed in order to derive the particle size distribution. The aim of this research is to design and test image processing algorithms for the future on-line particle size analyzer. This static imaging system was tested with narrow classified fractions of natural calcium carbonate with sizes ranging from 10 to 150 microns. Some statistical analysis is undertaken to evaluate the system performance. Correlation coefficients between the measured value and the standard value are all above 90%. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective and accurate in particle sizing under static conditions.