flame. The number of jets and included angle of these jets is important in achieving stability and flame shape. 2.4.7 Gas Pilot Due to the higher air velocities, the pilot has to operate under more arduous conditions than on a natural draught burner. The type of pilot which has usually been fitted has its own independent air supply so that the air/gas ratio will remain constant no matter what the burner load. The stabilizing system inside the pilot tip normally requires ignition from an internally placed portable electric igniter to ensure the stabilizing jets ignite. Recently, some burner manufacturers have developed suitable inspirating pilots, which have been proven to remain alight with Register Draught Losses (RDLs) up to 250 mm (10" wc). 2.5 High Intensity Burners Two of the features, which improve combustion, are rapid uniform air fuel mixing and a high temperature environment. The high intensity burner sets out to try and achieve these features by containing the flame in a small refractory lined chamber (combustor). To promote rapid air fuel mixing the combustion air is either swirled at the point of entry or introduced through jets arranged to promote a vortex within the chamber. This type of burner, when operating correctly, will combust fuel oil and gas at very low excess air and with low stack solids levels. Unfortunately, it is very susceptible to coking problems and combustor refractory life can be quite short. These problems are increased by the use of heavier fuel oils and oil residues from refinery processes such as visbreaking. A well-designed high intensity burner, when operating correctly, is a very impressive sight. However as the burner is very susceptible to fuel and operating condition changes and unless the manufacturers can improve their designs, new installation using this type of burner will be rarely seen. Examples of two high intensity burners, Gulf Vortomax and Urquhart, are shown in Figure 2.14 and 2.15 respectively. Figure 2.14 Gulf Vortomax High Intensity Burner PSA Consultants Ltd 29/167 Figure 2.24 Peabody LNOG Staged Air burner (3) Exhaust Gas Recirculation It has been shown in fundamental studies that exhaust gas recirculation is more effective in reducing the thermal NOX component than fuel derived NOX emissions. For this reason, the technique is more suited to gas fired installations where all the NOX emissions are thermally derived. The CCT (Combustion Contract Technology, now part of Sterling Process Engineering) FGI series of burner (Figure 2.25) uses a venturi in the primary air stream inside the windbox to inspirate the mainly inert combustion products from the hearth area of the furnace. These recirculated products are then mixed with the primary air before it passes through the swirler. The secondary air, which is kept separate from the primary air inside the windbox, is introduced through the annulus between the swirler and the quarl. With this type of burner, it is essential that there is an effective seal between the segments of the quarl in order to avoid the possibility of inspirating non-vitiated air from the secondary air stream. It is also necessary for the quarl to have a large diameter top surface in order to ensure that the combustion products are drawn from a position remote from the secondary air annulus. The burner can also be fired as a conventional non-recirculating burner by raising the conical venturi to seal off the internal recirculation ducts. PSA Consultants Ltd 38/167 Figure 2.26 John Zink SMR InfurNOx Burner 2.9.2 Performance of Low NOx Burners Conventional process burners are designed to create an intense and turbulent flame in order to achieve good flame stability and complete burnout of the fuel. The intense flame and rapid mixing of the fuel and air create the ideal situation for high NOX and low combustible emissions (particulates, smoke, CO, hydrocarbons etc.). In order to achieve low NOX, the mixing of the fuel and the air has to be controlled so that the peak flame temperature is reduced and the oxygen availability is restricted. However, these methods have an adverse effect on flame stability and fuel burnout and if taken to the extreme, will result in the loss of the flame. Therefore, it should be evident that Low NOX burners represent a compromise between acceptable emissions and flame stability. Generally speaking, any modifications that are made to a burner to reduce NOX emissions will have an adverse effect on flame stability and combustible emissions. Environmental legislation invariably calls for low NOX and low combustibles and whilst either of these parameters is easily achievable separately, to achieve them concurrently with acceptable flame stability is difficult. This is particularly so when the burner is required to operate over a wide range of fuel types and quality. Despite these limitations, the burner manufacturers have made significant strides forward in recent years and can offer burners that will operate safely, efficiently and with reduced emission levels. Figure 2.27 shows the relative performance of commercially available Low NOX and conventional burners when firing natural gas and heavy fuel oil respectively. Figure 2.27 also shows that despite all the advances made in burner design, it is still not possible to achieve the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive for new equipment on NOX and particulate emissions (450 mg/m3 NOX, 50 mg/m3 particulates) concurrently when firing a "normal" (i.e. 40 cSt @ 100 °C) heavy fuel oil. PSA Consultants Ltd 40/167 6. Combustion 6.1 The Combustion Reaction Combustion is, in general terms, an exothermic oxidation reaction of fuel and air during which physical processes such as energy, mass and momentum transfer are occurring simultaneously. The extent of completion of the exothermic reaction depends on the interaction of the above processes in space and time. The combustion of gaseous fuels is referred to as homogeneous and the combustion of solid and liquid fuels as heterogeneous. The phenomena occurring during homogeneous combustion are less complex than those occurring in heterogeneous combustion. For both oil and gas, the degree of mixing with combustion air is a critical first step in achieving high combustion efficiencies. During homogeneous combustion, chemical reaction commences as soon as mixing takes place. The mixing of fuel with air is explained in terms of the turbulent motion of the fluid and the density differences between flame and surroundings. Heterogeneous combustion requires longer burning times and liquid fuels need to be atomized prior to combustion. The combustion of fuel oil is shown in Figure 6.1. Fuel oil combustion commences with the lighter components being immediately boiled off as the oil droplets leave the atomizer and enter the hot combustion zone. The remaining heavy residue then undergoes pyrolysis at the high combustion temperature and it is these pyrolysis reactions, which cause smoke formation. Poor atomization of the fuel oil will result in oil drip. The residual carbon or coke remaining after the pyrolysis reaction then undergoes further burn out. Ideally, the carbonaceous matter should be completely burnt out to reduce the remaining solids or particulates to the minimum possible i.e. only inorganic ashes remaining. In practice, particulates from refinery heaters in particular and also boilers often contain 90% or more carbon material. Figure 6.1 Combustion of a Fuel Oil PSA Consultants Ltd 63/167 The effects on burner performance are now illustrated with examples for the following burners: Burner A - Natural Draught Burner B - Forced Draught Burner C - Forced Draught Burner D - Forced Draught. Data sheets for these burners are provided in Table 11.1 11.3.1 Flame Length 11.3.1.1 Effect of Liberation The visible flame size increases with increasing liberation although not proportionally. This can be seen from the table above e.g. for Burner A a 66% increase in liberation results in only a 33% increase in visible flame length when firing heavy fuel oil. The disproportionality is due to the effect of a change in the RDL. Visible flame length is usually used as a characteristic because flame volume is difficult to define due to the shape of the flame envelope. See Figure 11.2 which shows an oil flame. The maximum flame length and diameter are normally given so that the possibility of tube impingement and interference with flames issuing from adjacent burners can be avoided. Figure 11.2 An Oil Flame PSA Consultants Ltd 121/167 Figure 15.4 Good gas firing Figure 15.6 Partially blocked atomizer on oil burner Figure 15.5 Good oil firing Figure 15.7 Oil flame lifted from burner tip Figure 15.8 Oil burner ‘sparkler’ PSA Consultants Ltd 157/167
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