Adapting a rule-base for optimising combustion on a double burner boiler

Rules for adjusting, individually, the air-intake to each of a number of burners, depending the concentration of oxygen and of carbon monoxide monitored in their common flue were elicited from the experts. The rules, along with routines to allow them to interact with a multiple channel analog/digital converter via a personal computer´s communications port, were coded into PROLOG and tested on a multiple burner furnace. Electrically actuated louvres were fitted over the air-inlet aperture of each of the burners in a double burner boiler allowing individual control of the amount of air reaching each burner. A zirconia probe and an infrared analyser were fitted into the boiler´s common flue providing on-line concentrations of oxygen and carbon monoxide in the mixed waste gases of the boiler´s burners. The original rule-base was adapted to cope with the modulation of firing level on the boiler