Improved Combustion System for Energy Conservation in Industry

Abstract

U.S. industry consumes approximately 40 percent of all fuel consumed by the nation. The majority of this fuel is used to generate heat for elevating temperatures of materials. The heat is generated by combustion of the major fuels such as natural gas, fuel oil and coal. The combustion process itself and the utilization of heat generated by combustion has been carried out rather inefficiently. In the past, combustion equipment, primarily burners, were designed and operated with very little attention to the amount of heat wasted during their operation. The burners were considered a necessity, but their full potential in improving thermal efficiency of the heating process was very rarely used. Most of the burners used a varying amount of excess air. The air-fuel ratio control was primarily left to the operator and the flame shape and momentum were rarely considered as a design factor for the heating equipment.

In the last few years, heating equipment designers and suppliers have realized the importance of efficient burner operation. Midland-Ross and other burner manufacturers have, during this time, developed a large variety of special burners and associated equipment to allow the use of efficient combustion of fossil fuels. In addition to proper air-fuel ratio, the burners are capable of operating with preheated air or oxygen enriched air to recover and reduce the flue gas heat. Certain specially designed burners improve heat transfer to the work load by discharging high velocity gases into the furnace.

This paper describes various types of burners, their applications, and field test results which illustrate that a properly designed and applied combustion system can reduce the energy consumption and improve the productivity by reducing the process heating time.