Performance Enhancement Study of WMS-TDLAS System for Online Measurement of High-Concentration CO2 in Flue Gas

Accurate and stable measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in industrial flue gases is critical for emissions monitoring and carbon management. The present study developed a wavelength-modulated tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (WMS-TDLAS) system for measuring high-concentration carbon dioxide (CO2) in flue gases, covering a range of 3–20% (by volume). To mitigate optical intensity fluctuations caused by particle scattering and detector gain drift in harsh flue gas environments, a normalized second harmonic (2f/1f) detection scheme based on a single-harmonic peak was employed. A digital phase-locked amplification algorithm replaces the conventional hardware lock-in amplifier, enabling simultaneous demodulation of multiple harmonic components and enhancing system integration. A comparison of the digital locking method with a commercial lock-in amplifier reveals that the former demonstrates comparable or superior stability, with relative standard deviations of 0.04% for the 2f signal and 0.02% for the first-harmonic signal. In order to address the sensitivity degradation of WMS-TDLAS at elevated CO2 concentrations, a pressure control strategy was introduced. Maintaining the measurement cell pressure at 70 ± 0.005 kPa resulted in a 2.74-fold enhancement in system sensitivity at 13.01% CO2 and a more than one-order-of-magnitude increase at 20.01% CO2 compared to operation at atmospheric pressure. Concentration measurement error under reduced pressure also decreased from 1.101% to 0.075%. The system exhibited 0.6% repeatability in high-concentration CO2 measurements, signifying its aptitude for industrial flue gas monitoring applications.