The CCO 5500 Carbon Monoxide (CO) Analyzer uses infrared absorption spectroscopy to continuously measure CO concentration in combustion flue gases. The infrared source is mounted directly on the flue gas duct or stack on the side opposite from the receiver. Infrared energy is radiated by the source, through a chopper across the duct to the receiver. The receiver employs gas filter correlation and narrow band-pass optical filtration with two solid state detectors to determine the absorption of radiation by CO in the flue gas.
These principles are illustrated in block diagram form in Figure 2. Infrared energy, radiated by the source, passes
through the flue gas, where a portion of the energy is absorbed by any CO present. The remaining energy
passes through the receiver window, focusing lens and is split by a beam splitter. The split beam is directed to two
separate detectors, the process measurement detector and the reference detector. The process detector reads
the infrared signal coming from the CO in the combustion flue gases. The rest of the beam is redirected to the
reference detector where it is filtered through a known concentration of CO. The two energy levels are sensed by
the detectors and the signals are sent to the electronics. The resulting signals are ratioed and compared with the