John Zink

Newsfront

Burning for You

Stable under cold fur-
nace conditions, John
Zink’s Halo burner
achieves low CO lev-
els during startup or
turndown. A variety of
fuel compositions can
be used with the same
burner tips

New combustion equipment meets strict NOx regulations

while improving operational performance in your plant

A
s environmental regulations
continue to get tighter regard-
ing oxides of nitrogen (NOx)
and other emissions, makers of
burners and incinerators are working
to develop equipment that not only
meets or exceeds permissible emission
levels, but also surpasses traditional
operational capabilities.
“It is true that environmental reg-
ulations are pushing us to come up
with better technology,” says Roberto
Ruiz, vice president of process burners
with John Zink Co. (Tulsa, Okla.) “But
the real challenge is in finding that
perfect balance between meeting the
emissions requirements and making
sure we enhance the operating enve-
lope of the equipment. We are doing a
good job in that area.”
Building a better burner
For example, until recently ultralow-
NOx technology, which is helpful in
keeping NOx emissions down to single-
digit parts-per-million levels, has been
known to have certain operational limi-
tations. “The challenge has been how to
incorporate ultralow-NOx technology
with broader capabilities,” says Ruiz.
Traditional ultralow-NOx technol-
ogy presented some issues, such as
low turndown capabilities and longer
flames that didn’t work in retrofit
situations. However, Ruiz says John
Zink’s new Halo Burner, a multi-stage
process-burner system that combines
a “breakthrough” ultralow-NOx tech-
nology along with improvements in
performance dimensions, will eradi-
cate these issues.
The burner is designed with three
combustion stages, instead of the typ-
ical two seen in most low-NOx burner
designs, to help increase the turn-
down range. In the primary flame
stage, a constant flame source signifi-
cantly expands the burner turndown
range while COOLmix technology
helps minimize prompt NOx forma-
tion in the fuel-lean mixture. Dur-
ing the secondary flame stage, which
is a fuel-stage zone combined with
internal fluegas recirculation, the
tile geometry creates surfaces that
allow boundary layer attachment for
enhanced stability. And in the final
tertiary flame stage, an enhanced
fuel-staging region combines along
the outer tile surface for improved
fluegas entrainment and lower peak-
flame temperatures, allowing a re-
duction in thermal NOx formation.
The stability of the flame results
in expanded operations to achieve ex-
treme turndown ratios that were not
possible with conventional technology.
The Halo also offers a small flame
diameter that results in less burner-to-
burner interaction. This compact flame-
length characteristic provides the ben-
efits of ultra-low technology in retrofit
furnaces in all furnace types — even
where it was not previously possible.
And, a bonus attribute, says Ruiz,

New Tools for Cleaner Combustion Processes

While the bulk of emissions reductions comes from the combus-
tion equipment itself, there are several new tools available that
can help further clean up the combustion process.
Emerson Process Management (Solon, Ohio) recently upgraded
its Rosemount Analytical X-Stream oxygen analyzers to improve
efficiencies of large boilers and furnaces and provide immediate
reduction of carbon dioxide emissions with minimal investment.
The combustion fluegas analyzers provide information to control
the fuel-to-air ratio of the burner, much in the same way it is done
in today’s automobiles. The X-Stream O2 probe now offers im-
proved AccuMax accuracy specifications, extended temperature
capability and probe lengths up to 18-ft long to satisfy the needs
of the biggest boilers and furnaces.
According to Doug Simmers, worldwide product manager for
Rosemount Analytical, large furnaces typically have many burn-
(Continues on next page)

Chemical Engineering www.che.com October 2008 23

 New Tools for Cleaner Combustion Processes (Continued from previous page)
ers delivering fuel and air into the combustion zone, which may
be the size of a 10-story office building. Balancing the burners
maximizes heat rate efficiency and also minimizes the potential
damage to the furnace from flame impingement, tube leaks, ex-
cessive soot, slagging and other potential operational problems.
To achieve balance and avoid these problems, many facilities use
permanently mounted O2 probes at different locations inside the
fluegas duct and average the readings inside the control system to
optimize the total furnace fuel-to-air ratio. Readings from the O2
probes also provide an indication of the stratification of flue gases
inside the furnace.
“Many traditional O2 analyzers have a fixed insertion depth, and
engineers had to guess at the best placement of the probes,” says
Simmers. “The new longer probes not only reach further into these
large ducts, but they now have the ability to be adjusted after installa-
tion so the entire width of the fluegas duct can be characterized.”
The new line of probes is designed to be repaired without remov-
ing the probe from the furnace duct. Additionally, they can provide
indication of reducing conditions that may occur inside the furnace
during plant upsets.
And, a new tool for clean combustion design in gas turbine ap-
plications has been launched by Reaction Design (San Diego,
Calif.). Energico, a complex system-design-simulation tool, works
by applying detailed chemistry technology to solve the toughest
gas-turbine engineering problems related to emissions reduction
and stability. The product enables virtual simulation of combus-

is the flexibility to operate with a va-
riety of fuels. “In the past, having an
ultralow-NOx burner that could oper-
ate over a broad range of fuel compo-
sitions has been a challenge, but new
technology allows the Halo to be ca-
pable of this,” he says.
A variety of fuel compositions can be
used with the same burner tips. Nor-
mally, adjustments are not necessary
to accommodate different fuel types,
saving time and money.
Also looking to enhance the operating
envelope of their boiler burners, John
Zink has recently introduced an im-
provement to its burner technology that
allows users to achieve less than 5 ppm
NOx with only a burner; no selective-cat-
alytic-reduction (SCR) unit is required.
“There are several benefits to achiev-
ing these low NOx levels within the
burner itself as opposed to using an
SCR on the back end,” says Tim Webster,
general manager of John Zink’s Gordon-
Piatt group. He says from a capital per-
spective it’s a little less expensive and
it’s easier to operate, but the biggest
driver is that the SCR cleanup systems
typically require an injected medium
such as ammonia to scrub out the NOx.
“That’s another chemical users have
to bring onsite with special storage and
disposal requirements, and it’s another
continued operating cost,” says Webster.
“Another issue with SCR is that every
five-to-ten years the catalyst beds be-
come saturated and have to be replaced,
which can be another significant cost.”
With a similar leap towards im-
proving operations while cleaning up
emissions, Hamworthy Combustion
(Houston, Tex.) is offering an ESP
(Enviromix Split Phase) ultralow NOx
burner for petrochemical plants to help
meet expected ultralow-NOx levels as-

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Circle 20 on p. 78 or go to adlinks.che.com/7377-20 Circle 21 on p. 78 or go to adlinks.che.com/7377-21
24 Chemical Engineering
87_Flexim-Anzeige-ChemEngin 1 www.che.com October 2008
11.01.2008 11:18:49 Uh
tion stability so engineers can pinpoint and assess the causes of
lean blow-off, a major issue in gas turbine design. Other model-
ing tools such as computation-fluid-dynamics (CFD) software do
not support the level of chemistry detail necessary to model lean
blow-off and are much more time intensive while providing less
accuracy and modeling stability, says Bernie Rosenthal, CEO of
Reaction Design.
“Energico delivers high-quality predictions across a broad op-
erating envelope, including diverse fuel sources and variable
environmental conditions and usage scenarios,” says Rosenthal.
“We believe this technology will be a catalyst in advancing the
use of sustainable fuels and reducing environmental impacts in
turbine engines.”
Reaction Design is also addressing combustion modeling with
regard to emerging regulations governing emissions of oxides of
nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and particulates.
Energico can simulate the chemistry performance for any continu-
ous-flow combustion device using virtually any type of fuel to predict
its emissions output. User-defined algorithms within the tool can be
fully customized for specific requirements targeted at applications
such as gas turbines, boiler and furnace burners, flares and incin-
erators and continuous chemical reactors.
While chemical processors would not have this simulation software
in house, the tool would allow an applications engineer for a turbine
company to take the input of a customer in the chemical process
industries (CPI) who would like to know the effects of burning meth-
ane or other opportunity fuels instead of natural gas in the facility’s
turbines and determine the expected outcome. ❏

sociated with BAT (best available tech-

nology) of ethylene and petrochemical
applications while reducing problems
associated with the de-coke run and
turndown operation of the furnace.
“With some burners, the heavy gases
associated with de-coke runs can result
in poor mixing of fuel to air, and this
can result in carbon deposits on the
nozzles,” says Andy Castell, general
manager (process). “When the firing
rate of the burner is taken back up to
normal operation, the actual orifices
of the nozzle have sometimes become
blocked by carbon deposits and as a re-
sult a poor flame condition is seen. This
can be a problem, especially with low-
NOx and ultralow NOx burners.”
Hamworthy Combustion, however,
has devised the ESP burner up-shot
furnaces used in ethylene crackers and
steam reformers, and extended this de-
sign to its ESC burner for process fur-
naces. While the burner is suitable for
ultralow-NOx applications, the large
single-orifice, main-gas-nozzle design
eliminates the possibility of gas tip
plugging due to heavy fuel gases. The
combustion design allows for low excess
air and NOx levels to be maintained
over the full operating conditions, in-
cluding de-coke and hot steam standby.
The internal superheating of the fuel
gases provides extreme flame stability
with turndowns in excess of ten to one.
And, like the Halo, the ESP burner can
operate with a wide range of fuel gases,
from ethylene to hydrogen.

Improving incinerators
As combustion equipment manufactur-
ers develop new and better low-NOx
burner technologies, they are begin-
ning to apply similiar principles and
techniques to incineration equipment.
Selas Fluid Processing Corp. (Blue
Bell, Pa.), for example, is touting its Ther-
matrix flameless thermal oxidizers as the
state-of-the-art combustion technology.
Circle 22 on p. 78 or go to adlinks.che.com/7377-22
Chemical Engineering www.che.com October 2008 25
 Newsfront
Flameless thermal oxidation is a
process that thermally reacts combus-
tible gases or atomized liquids, or both,
with an oxidizing agent to convert
combustible compounds to their oxi-
dized state and release heat without
flame. This is accomplished by heating
the compounds to reaction tempera-
ture under controlled conditions in a
Circle 23 on p. 78 or go to adlinks.che.com/7377-23
26 Chemical Engineering www.che.com October 2008
specially designed reactor that absorbs
and dissipates the heat of the reaction.
This maintains a stable oxidation zone
at a precise temperature and residence
time sufficient to compensate for fume
flow and composition.
There are several advantages of
flameless thermal oxidation, accord-
ing to Gene Irrgang, product man-
Selas Fluid Processing
The patented Thermatrix GH FTO
(flameless thermal oxidizer) design
consists of a carbon steel, refractory-
lined oxidation vessel with a large cen-
tered dip tube. The oxidizer is approxi-
mately half full of randomly packed,
inert ceramic pieces forming a uniform
matrix that is maintained at operating
temperature by the constant oxidation
of the fume. Fume, air and supplemen-
tal trim fuel enter the system at the top
of the dip tube and flow down through
high-efficiency, vortex mixing tabs to
pre-mix all feeds prior to entering the
ceramic matrix
ager, oxidation technologies. Ultralow
NOx levels of less than 2 parts per
million, as well as dioxin and furans
emissions of less than 0.1 ng/m3 TEQ
(toxic equivalents) can be achieved via
the technology. Further, the destruc-
tive process produces no secondary
organic-waste stream. And, in line
with enhancing the operational enve-
lope while reducing emissions is the
fact that the Thermatrix models offer
energy efficient operation, stable op-
eration when responding to variable
organic loading, a completely inert
matrix with no catalyst to foul and a
turndown capability that better ad-
dresses minimum baseload conditions,
thus reducing operating costs.
Selas isn’t alone when it comes to
improving the operational capabilities
of its equipment.
For example, Terry Dark, senior ap-
plications engineer with Zeeco, Inc.,
(Broken Arrow, Okla.) says that as
thermal treatment of wastes becomes
the premier method of disposing of
 Combustion Equipment and Service Providers:
AE&E-Von Roll  www.vonrollinc.com Selas Fluid Processing www.selasfluid.com
Bekaert Corp. www.bekaert.com TEI Struthers Wells www.teistruthers.com
Emerson Process Management www.emersonprocess.com TMTS Associates tfmcgowan.home.mindspring.com
John Zink Co. www.johnzink.com Todd Combustion Group www.toddcombustion.com
Hamworthy-Combustion www.hamworthy-combustion.com Zeeco www.zeeco.com
Reaction Design www.reactiondesign.com

hazardous and non-hazardous wastes, Associates, Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.) “Both their combustion equipment,” says
many new, updated incinerators are regulatory actions regarding NOx, SO2 McGowan. “And manufacturers will
being developed to safely and effec- and other emissions and the need for continue to develop new technologies
tively dispose of waste streams such increased fuel economy are pushing to meet new regulations and needs.” ■
as tail gas, acid gas, chlorinated hy- more chemical processors to upgrade Joy Le Pree
drocarbons, waste gases and waste liq-
uids. But with the rising price of elec-
tricity and fuels, Zeeco is incorporating
waste-heat-recovery equipment to re-
duce operating costs or provide steam
for other plant operations at the same
time they are reducing emissions.
For example, this technology is
being applied to sulfur incineration
equipment, which is one of the biggest P E R F O R M A N C E T H R O U G H E N G I N E E R I N G
markets for incineration equipment
now. Zeeco’s Claus Plant, a sulfur re-
covery unit, is used to recover elemen-
tal sulfur from tail gas — streams con- ”When we needed a solution to improve our
taining hydrogen sulfide. The reaction
chemistry is the partial oxidation of
gas scrubbing process, BETE performed.”
H2S to elemental sulfur and the total
oxidation of any hydrocarbons. In our geothermal production power was critical to match the diameter
To optimize operations, reduce costs gas flow, the droplets had high of the droplets in the pipeline.
associated with wasted heat and re- mineral content that needed to be Our consultant recommended that
move harmful pollutants, these sys-
diluted before scrubbing we turn to the experts –
tems are generally custom-engineered
as a package that includes six main the gas. In addition, it BETE Application Engineers –
pieces of equipment: an acid gas to solve our problem.
burner, reaction furnace or thermal
reactor, the waste-heat boiler, in-line
BETE’s Solution
reheat burners, catalytic reactors, and
the acid gas (or tail gas) incinerators.
BETE Application Engineers to ANSI B31.1 welding code
Similarly, John Zink is also leaning
towards providing “mini plants” that designed a custom nozzle specifications, using in-house
include the added bonus of waste-heat- manifold consisting of right rapid prototyping and
recovery components, according to Rick
angle and full cone nozzles. investment casting foundry.
Iwamoto, vice president of John Zink’s
thermal oxidizer group. He adds that BETE’s in-house fabrication BETE’s Solution offered signifi-
one of the latest improvements to the expertise produced 316 stainless cant savings in time and money.
technology is the combination of com-
steel nozzle assemblies, built
bustion with heat recovery using a
membrane-wall heat-recovery unit.
“We’ve actually integrated the combus-
tion and heat recovery in a common ves-
sel,” says Iwamoto. “This allows some
applications to do both the firing and
the heat recovery in the same device.”
Such improvements may only be
the tip of the iceberg, according to the
experts. Innovation in the combus- BETE Fog Nozzle,Inc.
tion industry is expected to increase
as the trend toward upgrading burn- 50 Greenfield St., Greenfield, MA 01301 T (413) 772-0846 F (413) 772-6729
ers and incinerators continues, says www.bete.com
Thomas McGowan, president of TMTS
Circle 24 on p. 78 or go to adlinks.che.com/7377-24
Chemical Engineering www.che.com October 2008 27