Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for process monitoring and control

An important requirement in many industries is the ability to perform on-line monitoring and control of harsh, multi-phase process streams. During the last ten years, significant progress has occurred in the hardware and applications for Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Instrumentation is now available which can perform, in harsh environments, continuous unattended and simultaneous measurements of absorbed (or reflected) and emitted radiation. The applications of FT-IR include: (1) concentrations of multiple species and phases (gases, liquid, particles, surfaces) as low as ppb; (2) temperatures of multiple species and phases (gases, liquid, particles, surfaces) with accuracies as good as +/- 1 degree(s)C at any elevated temperature; (3) measurement of particle sizes; (4) measurement of film thickness; (5) in-situ line-of-sight data; (6) in-situ spatially resolved data using tomography; (7) data on extracted samples; and (8) data on time scales as short as a few milliseconds.