Method and system for monitoring plant operating capacity

• US 20090216574A1
• Filed: 08/17/2006
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuvo Ventures, LLC
• Original Assignee: Nuvo Ventures, LLC
• Inventors: Nuszen, Jack, Vo, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 8,738,424 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/3504 for analysing gases, e.g. multi-gas analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/85 Investigating moving fluids or granular solids
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40

Abstract

A monitoring system is disclosed for acquiring output activity, utilization capacity and/or effluent data from an facility on a facility-by-facility and/or an industry-by-industry basis. The system is designed to generate a plant and/or industry output activity database that is updated on a continuous, near continuous, periodic and/or intermittent basis so that subscribers are apprised of changes in plant or overall industry output. A clearing house is also disclosed for distributing the acquired data to subscribers to aid in analyzing, predicting trends, pricing, maintaining, adjusting, minimizing, and/or maximizing individual plant or overall industry output.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring and determining plant output activity comprising:

an imaging subsystem capable of imaging a site of an industrial facility and capturing image data associated with the site, and

an analysis subsystem for converting the image data into plant output activity, capacity utilization and/or effluent compositional data.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a data processing subsystem capable of correcting the image output data for existing environmental factors prior to analysis.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

an accumulation subsystem adapted to accumulate the image data; and

a trend subsystem adapted to determine trends in the plant output activity or capacity utilization data.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising:

a report subsystem adapted to produce reports derived from the collected data.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the imaging subsystem comprises:

a thermal detector adapted to capture thermal data.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the imaging subsystem comprises:

a thermal detector adapted to capture thermal data, and

one or a plurality of effluent composition detectors adapted to capture data corresponding to the production of a given atomic species, molecular species, and/or class of molecular species.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the imaging subsystem comprises:

a detector capable of converting incident light into an electronic signal,

a thermal filter adapted to capture thermal data, and

one or a plurality of effluent composition filters adapted to capture data corresponding to the production of a given atomic species, molecular species, and/or class of molecular species.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the compositional data comprises S_xO_y, N_xO_y, CO₂, hydrocarbons, water, or mixtures or combinations thereof.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of imaging subsystems, one for each facility being monitored, each subsystem in communication with the analysis subsystem.

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18. A method for monitoring and determining plant output activity comprising the steps of:

imaging stacks and/or stack effluent plumes generated by an industrial facility or units thereof using an imaging subsystem,

producing image output data including at least thermal data of the stacks and/or plumes using an analysis subsystem, and

converting the image data into plant output capacity data.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of:

prior to the converting step, correcting the image output data for existing environmental factors using a data processing subsystem.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:

accumulating the plant output capacity data using an accumulation subsystem adapted to accumulate the plant output capacity data and

determining trends using a trend subsystem from the accumulated plant output capacity data.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:

accumulating the plant output capacity data using an accumulation subsystem adapted to accumulate the plant output capacity data and

determining trends using a trend subsystem from the accumulated plant output capacity data.

22. The method of claim 20, firther comprising the step of:

producing a report using a report subsystem evidencing plant output capacity over time, maximum output, and output trends.

23. A method for monitoring industrial output comprising the steps of:

providing a monitoring system for some or all facilities of a desired industry;

imaging stacks and/or stack effluent plumes generated by each industrial facility or units thereof using an imaging subsystem of the monitoring system for each facility,

producing image output data including at least thermal data of the stacks and/or plumes for each monitored facility using an analysis subsystem,

correcting the image output data for existing environmental factors for each monitored facility using a data processing subsystem, and converting the image data into plant output capacity data for each monitored facility.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of:

accumulating the plant output capacity data for each monitored facility using an accumulation subsystem adapted to accumulate the plant output capacity data,

determining trends for each monitored facility using a trend subsystem from the accumulated plant output capacity data for each monitored facility, and

determining trends for all of the monitored facilities using the trend subsystem from the accumulated plant output capacity data for each monitored facility.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of:

producing a report using a report subsystem evidencing individual plant output capacity over time, maximum output, and output trends and/or collective plant output capacity over time, maximum and minimum output and output trends.