Influencing factors of on-line measurement of straw-coal blends using near infrared spectroscopy

Abstract: In order to study the effect of conveyor speed (V) and spectrometer installation height (H) on on-line measurement of straw-coal blends using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS). A total of 80 straw samples, 9 coal samples, 120 straw-coal blend samples with straw content from 70% to 99% (1% wt/wt increments) and 120 straw-coal blend samples with straw content from 1% to 30% (1% wt/wt increments) were prepared. Spectra were obtained using a Thermo Fisher Scientific Antaris Target FT-NIR spectrometer at V=300, 600, 1 000, 1 400 mm/s and H =50, 56, 59, 65 mm, respectively. Linear discriminant analysis method was used for qualitative analysis and partial least squares regression was used for quantitative analysis. The spectrometer installation height is suggested to be 50-65 mm and the conveyor speed less than 300 mm/s. This study can provide references for the methodological research and related equipment design of on-line qualitative and quantitative measurement of biomass-coal blends using NIRS.