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Diluted Combustion Technologies - IFRF 200101
Diluted Combustion Technologies - IFRF 200101
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However, the basic chemical-physical phenomena are far from being fully understood
and are much less known to process design engineers. There is even no general
agreement on the nominal definition among specialised investigators, both from R&TD
companies and academicians, as proven by the abundance of acronyms quoted above.
The acronyms were intended to stress some features for patent purposes that often cover
particular embodiments.
Therefore, the present article is mainly devoted to reviewing the subject for the sake of
design engineers in order to popularise the new combustion technologies. It emphasises
basic facts and summarises some theoretical background first. Industrially proven
examples are then described, aiming at showing the big potential advantages for
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existing high temperature processes. The potential advantages for high temperature
furnaces are far from being exhausted: therefore, a few suggestions are discussed
concerning processes considered to be in the pre-competitive stage and mature for
prototype development.
2. DILUTED COMBUSTION
2.1 History
Flame dilution techniques have been investigated first to abate NOx emissions [7].
Dilution means that fuel and oxidiser are mixed “locally” with a ballast of inert gases
before they react so that the oxygen concentration in the reactants is substantially
reduced with respect to the 21% of the standard oxidising air. Recirculation of flue
gases or products of combustion from inside the combustion chamber carry out the most
common dilution mechanism.
The practical difference between conventional flame and diluted or flameless firing
modes may be spectacular: compare the two pictures in Figure 2, referred to 1500 kW
natural gas fired flames, and the two pictures in Figure 3 obtained on a pilot plant fired
with heavy fuel oil [9]. By flameless mode, the furnace is almost transparent, typical
combustion roar disappears, as there is no flame front any more, and reactions are
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brought about according to chemistry paths quite different from the conventional,
burner-stabilised flame [10,11,12]. The air vitiation with an inert gas component implies
a limit to the maximum adiabatic temperature and therefore the upper temperature in the
FLOX® region is inherently limited (see Figure 1). There is no wonder that the
pollutant formation and the heat flux distribution are quite different for the conventional
and the diluted firing mode and this may be exploited for practical purposes.
Fig. 3.a: Conventional and flameless combustion of heavy fuel oil. Prototype swirl burner
for heavy fuel oil - power 100 kWth. Oxidizer: standard atmospheric air (21% O2)
preheated at 250°C.
Fig. 3.b: Conventional and flameless combustion of heavy fuel oil. Same prototype swirl
burner for heavy fuel oil - power 100 kWth. Oxidizer: vitiated air with 12 % O2 preheated
at 500°C (flameless combustion).
The existing know-how derives basically from pioneering pilot trials and industrial
works carried out in Japan, first with Tokyo Gas and then by the late Mr Tanaka [13],
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and in Germany, in particular by Dr Wünning [14]. This work has opened up far
reaching perspectives for new firing technologies not only for high temperature
furnaces, where many industrial plants have now been successfully retrofitted or built
from greenfield, but also for power generation, gasification and several other
combustion processes [15].
Figure 4 reproduces the scheme of a “high velocity” burner typical of many furnace and
boiler applications. Combustion air is usually preheated and entrainment of internal re-
circulation of hot flue gases at process temperature from the combustion chamber is
carried out by the kinetic energy of the jet (or jets, depending on details of burner
design).
High velocity is not intended to be an absolute value, but certainly implies forced air
draught, high momentum of fuel injection, and high linear velocity of hot air. The
emphasis is on fluid dynamic entrainment and mixing of flue gases (exhausted product
of combustion containing N2+CO2+H2O+residual O 2) from the combustion chamber. If
a flame retention device is provided, a conventional flame front, attached to the burner
or stabilised into the burner tile itself can be set up (Figure 4, conventional flame).
If fuel and air are injected directly into the combustion chamber, according to several
possible schemes [16] and avoiding possible formation of a stable flame front (see e.g.
Figure 4, flameless firing), the jets of the reactants are diluted with surrounding flue
gases before they mix and burn. Diluted or flameless firing is then occurring, provided
process temperature is above self-ignition. This general scheme applies as well for the
case of vitiated air inlet, as in the example reported in Figure 3 (see bottom: O2=12%)
up to pure oxygen firing [17].
2.3 Modelling
In conventional burner firing, the bulk of the chemistry is already over just downstream
of the flame front and kinetics proceeds much faster than mixing; diluted firing, instead,
is controlled both by chemical kinetics and by mixing. Self-ignition temperature must
be attained locally in order to ignite reactions and furthermore there is competition
between oxidation and pyrolitic reactions due to very diluted conditions. A theoretical
analysis of methane oxidation in very diluted O 2 conditions (O2≈ 5%), based on detailed
kinetic schemes applied to a well-stirred reactor (WSR) supplies an interesting
suggestion [9].
Figure 5 shows potential reaction regimes depending on the ratio C/O (0.25 being
stoichiometric and 1 being fuel rich as a reformer). It displays TWSR vs To (inlet
temperature of reactants). Self-ignition and the effect of stoichiometry are clearly
visible. The original paper [9] shows that the assumption of well stirring, and hence of
quite uniform temperature and concentration can only apply if flameless or diluted
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combustion is considered as a sort of staged combustion. In the first stage, fuel
conversion to CO and H2 occurs in diluted, rich conditions. Dilution not only reduces
the maximum attainable temperature, but also depresses the formation of species
responsible of luminous emission from flames. A further air entrainment in the reaction
zone along the burner axis leads to complete conversion of CO and H2 to CO2 and H 2O.
Therefore the expression volume distributed combustion instead of flame front
combustion seems appropriate both to experimental evidence and to theoretical
prediction.
Fig. 5: Well Stirred Reactor temperature vs inlet temperature (after de Joannon [9])
Kinetic computations have been carried out in flameless conditions applied to gas
turbines, i.e. at temperatures lower than many furnace processes and at large
equivalence ratios (i.e. at overall excess air factors λ around 2-3). Results of kinetic
codes have put in evidence a large potential of reduction of NOx emission [18] and
details of NO formation via a N2O pathway, as the “traditional” NO formation
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mechanisms are almost suppressed (see § 2.4 below). Predicted NO is not very sensitive
to pressure, but is very much dependent on temperature.
This focuses attention back again onto reliable predictions of computational fluid
dynamics (“CFD” codes): experimental data measured in flame/flameless conditions on
the same test furnace are being obtained at ENEA Laboratories [19] and have been
modelled with FLUENT® [20]. Results show reasonably good agreement with the
experimental data only when the combustion model used (EDC) accounts for finite-rate
chemistry and very poor agreement when the combustion model is based on local
equilibrium (i.e., a single conserved scalar and a “pdf” modelled by a “β-function”).
With the EDC model the predicted outlet NOx is low, in agreement with measurements.
These results confirm the importance of chemistry and mixing in this flame regime;
simulated detailed chemistry with CHEMKIN (using the measured flame
temperatures and compositions) confirms the NO formation pattern via the N2O
pathway, with very little contributions from thermal and prompt -NO.
Very high air preheating is the main energy saving measure in furnaces, but produces an
intolerably fast increase of NOx emissions in conventional burners, which puts
contradictory requirements to the designer. The basic discovery of flameless techniques
was the result of research developments aimed at overcoming this constraint [13,14].
Now, the essential difference in the two schemes of Figure 4 is temperature uniformity,
typical of flameless firing that affects NOx emissions quite drastically. Figure 6 reports
several accumulated NOx data in a log scale as a function of process temperature,
assuming very efficient preheating of the combustion air (60-80 % of the process
temperature).
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It may be seen from Figure 6 that diluted or flameless combustion (region labelled
FLOX) may abate NOx emissions by one order of magnitude even with respect to the
best staging techniques for low-NOx, envisaged for natural gas firing. The main reason
for this excellent result stems from the well known circumstance, that thermal NO
formation is extremely sensitive to flame temperature peaks or spikes and these are now
cut away in flameless firing. But also the other known NO formation mechanisms are
positively modified, as prompt NO depends on radicals (that are abundant in a flame
front, but much reduced in flameless mode [11]) and also fuel NO may undergo
reburning effects capable of reconverting NO into N2 species [21,22].
3. HEAT RECOVERY
1,00
0,90
0,80
0,70
Thermal efficiency
0,60
0,50
0,40
lambda=1.1; risc.=100%
0,30 lambda=1.1; risc.=40%
lambda=1.1;risc.=0%
0,20
lambda=2.5;risc.=100%
0,10
lambda=2.5;risc.=0%
0,00
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Process temperature °C
The solution has been found by decentralising heat recovery and integrating the heat
exchanger into the single burner, by extracting hot flue gases in counter-current to the
air, thereby suppressing external hot air manifolds and piping. This concept of the
burner integrated heat recovery has been followed by several manufacturers, but has
been hindered for a long time by the excessive flame peak temperature conducive to
intolerable NO formation and thermal stress of construction materials [23]. Flameless or
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diluted combustion techniques provide a sound solution to this problem and therefore
may be considered as a necessary pre-requisite for high air preheat. Suppression of the
flame front attached to the burner is also advantageous to reduce local stress of ceramic
materials and components for high temperature duty, such as SiC nozzles, heat
exchangers, honeycombs etc.
A quite effective embodiment of the counter-current flue gas/air heat exchanger rests
upon the regenerative principle, based on a couple of twin ceramic thermal capacities or
solid beds.
With reference to Figure 8, flue gases flow through the RHS body heating the bed while
air flows into the LHS burner (firing) thereby cooling the bed; the situation is reversed
as in the lower figure with cyclic flow inversion. The principle has been in use for a
long time for large hot processes (e.g. glass melting), but the new idea is to integrate the
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regenerative bed (ceramic beads, honeycomb etc) into the burner body. By reducing the
inversion time to a few tens of seconds (typically 10-40 seconds with respect to 20
minutes in large centralised plants) it is possible to reduce the size of the heat exchanger
dramatically, while maintaining very high air preheat efficiencies in the order of ξrisc ≈
80-90%, at least for clean flue gases [24]. Ceramic regenerators are now available on
the market at an affordable price and in compact shapes.
Small natural gas burners (≈ 20-200 kW) with integrated heat recovery have been
developed in particular in the domain of ferrous metallurgy [16]. They are designed for
both flame and flameless operation in order to be used for heating the furnace up to the
self-ignition temperature (≈ 850 °C); above the safety, self-ignition threshold, it is
allowed to switch to FLOX® mode simply with electro-valves (Figure 9).
Burners for large reheating furnaces (e.g. ladle pre-heating, car-bottom forge furnaces,
walking beam furnaces etc) must be robust and integrated into the required harsh plant
environment. Their average size spans from ≈ 500 kW up to ≈ 4000 kW. Most recent
burners use honeycomb beds and are by far more compact and efficient than the old
ceramic bead packages used for quite a few years. An example of such a regenerative
couple of recent design is reported in the scheme of Figure 11.
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FLUE GASES
AIR
NAT. GAS
OUTLET
INLET
°C
FLUE GASES
NAT.GAS
OUTLET
INLET
°C
The first example concerns single ended ceramic radiant tubes (see Figure 10) operated
in FLOX® mode, installed on a continuous annealing furnace for electric steel strip
under hydrogen atmosphere in the Works Bochum (Germany) of Thyssen-Krupp. The
SiC radiant tube equipped with an auto-recuperative gas burner [25], is a
technologically advanced piece of equipment, expensive and fragile. However it allows
higher performance as far as maximum temperature and good uniformity are concerned
and also it requires less maintenance thanks to better stability of ceramics with respect
to metal. The excellent NOx emissions performance due to FLOX® operation and the
advantages of burner decentralised heat recovery make the rest, so that these proven
advantages have outweighed higher costs. After successful field experience with
revamping a first annealing furnace, further units have been built and put into operation
with economic benefits.
The second example concerns continuous annealing furnaces operated with direct flame
firing. In the first case the stock consists of a stainless steel strip, to be processed for
subsequent cold rolling. The furnace is part of an annealing and pickling line in the
Works of Acciai Speciali Terni (Terni – Italy), which has been rebuilt anew four years
ago with a project initially co-sponsored by the EC (THERMIE program) with CSM and
WS as partners [26]. The furnace consists of two tunnel shaped combustion chambers,
with a central chimney (Figure 13), while the strip is supported by external rollers and
the combustion equipment includes more than 60 auto-regenerative “REGEMAT®”
burners (200 kW each – see details in [27]) installed all along the side walls.
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The REGEMAT® is a compact unit that includes the couple of regenerating beds into a
single unit (Figure 14) and looks therefore much more complicated than usual burners.
The burners can be operated in flame or in FLOX® mode and are all connected in
parallel to the supply lines for combustion air and for flue gas extraction. They are
controlled by means of on-off control and sequential firing routines, which allow
distributing firing on several flames in parallel. Zone control is carried out by
alternating “on” and “off” time intervals, computed by the control loop; a much better
accuracy and response speed are obtained with respect to the traditional modulated
control, whereby air and gas flow-rates are reduced in proportion to the thermal
requirement.
This advantage of the sequential firing at full burner load, together with the favourable
characteristics of the flameless combustion, make possible a superior thermal
uniformity, which is reflected in better quality of the stock. This feature is a main item
for many applications and may also have important outcomes on the final evaluation of
running costs of the final product. The Terni furnace has been operating satisfactorily
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for many years, although it must be kept in mind that the novel burners and the related
combustion equipment are more complex and maintenance demanding than
conventional equipment.
The third example concerns the revamping of a walking beam furnace for slabs of
capacity 230 t/h in the steelworks NKK ni Fukuyama [29]. It has been equipped with
large regenerative “HiTAC” NFK burners based on a very efficient honeycomb bed,
which is far superior to traditional ceramic beads. As a result, the new furnace has an
increased capacity and has been able to replace two adjacent old furnaces with the same
layout, i.e. the same length between inlet and outlet roller ways. Thermal uniformity as
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well as accuracy and speed of control are claimed to be much superior to traditional
firing and control systems. Also the energy savings and the NOx performance are very
similar to the heat treatment plants quoted above. If the costs of investment are referred
to the enhanced productivity, the fixed costs become competitive with the current
technology of central air recuperator. Therefore the new technology becomes attractive
not only for increasing productivity of existing plants (revamping) but also for green
field construction and the system does not require any pay-back time based on future
fuel savings.
4.3 Conclusions
The following Table summarises the comparison between the new regenerative,
flameless technology and the conventional central air preheater and traditional burners
in continuous counter-current furnaces. These data are based on the results of the quoted
plants and consolidated by years of satisfactory operation and refer to a thermal power
per unit spanning more than two orders of magnitude, i.e. between ≈ 25 kW for radiant
tubes up to ≈5000 kW for slab reheating burners.
The diluted or flameless combustion process as described above can be taken into
consideration also for steam generators fired at high temperature, keeping in mind
potential advantages like:
From the point of view of industrial application, the NOx reduction in steam generators,
is not sufficient itself to justify alone the required development of new combustion
technologies. Because of the available consolidated techniques like “OFA”, “BOOS”
and “reburning”, that allows operating safely below present limits with relatively
moderate investment costs.
However, the absence of a flame front opens new perspectives for firing those lean fuels
considered difficult for their low calorific value, the low content in volatile matters or
the variable composition. Difficult fuels should also be considered those coming from
renewable sources and recovery fuels, which should contribute in a significant measure
in the next future to the mitigation of the greenhouse gas emission. The adoption of
diluted combustion techniques could also be justified if it could exhibit substantial
advantages in the clean firing of heavy liquid fuels or residues containing organic
components difficult to burn. If the technique could be used to solve the environmental
problem, it might be quite competitive thanks to the very low price of such fuels.
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The advantage mentioned in point (5) above may be justified with a better fuel
utilisation by means of a reduction of the excess air required to avoid CO formation and
of an improved thermal uniformity, which could allow an increase in the maximum
steam temperature. An improved temperature uniformity could provide better heat
transfer distribution and control with a consequent reduction of the total heat transfer
surface; also the abatement of particulate could have the ability to reduce fouling and
therefore the required bank surfaces (point (6) above).
This new combustion regime may be implemented with different techniques, such as:
The route labelled as 4) above, can be realised in particular by exploiting the turbine
exhaust gas (TEG) of typical gas turbines, as the chemical and physical conditions of
the exhaust gas are already close to the thermo-chemical conditions required by diluted
or flameless combustion: oxygen dilution and high temperature. The TEG or Turbine
Exhaust Gas is typically at 450- 550°C and contains ≈ 12-15 % oxygen, which is
suitable for use as oxidiser for flameless firing.
The TEG to be used as the oxidiser is available in all repowering projects for old steam
generators fired with natural gas or a gas fuel suitable for a gas turbine. Then the TEG
can be used to burn low-grade fuels instead of recovering just the sensible heat only in
HRSG (Heat Recovery Steam Generators). Part of the TEG can be diverted to a by-pass
branch, where a combustion chamber at temperatures above self-ignition is provided to
burn the low-grade fuel. An industrial example, the co-generation power station ILVA
in Taranto (Italy), producing some 1000 MWel from recovery process gases (plus
natural gas) by-produced by the steelworks [30]. Excess lean blast furnace gas is fired in
flameless mode in the by-pass branch upstream of the recovery steam generator. The
equipment required for this application has been developed for a specific purpose. It has
been observed on pilot scale that above a threshold of about 750-800 °C, the
combustion of blast furnace gas with TEG is complete in spite of the very low calorific
value and that it takes place with a diffuse bluish luminescence without a flame front.
The three industrial HRSGs in Taranto have been working satisfactorily for the last 5
years.
6. CONCLUSIONS IN PERSPECTIVE
Public authorities in Japan support this R&D effort aimed at complying with the Kyoto
protocol engagements by means of a massive incentive program for industrial
revamping projects [31]. In the USA, energy is cheap, so that the economic incentive in
fuel savings is limited: however, the most recent DOE documents [32] support
substantial improvements for the combustion technology by the year 2020 and
American equipment manufacturers see a good business opportunity in development of
clean combustion technologies.
Diluted combustion techniques, coupled with efficient heat recovery, show a great
potential for complying with the commitments of European countries within the
framework of the “Kyoto protocol” in order to reduce the release to atmosphere of
greenhouse gas [33]. The new technologies make considerable fuel savings possible, in
the order of more than 25 % for high temperature furnaces, with a corresponding
reduction of CO2 release, and a drastic abatement of NOx emissions with consequent
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mitigation of acid rain and of greenhouse gas pollutants. These performances have been
demonstrated on a large-scale industry, like steelmaking, which alone amounts to ≈ 20%
of the primary energy consumption in industry.
Apart from consolidated applications, the flameless combustion shows a great potential
in particular for high temperature furnaces and processes in the glass, ceramic,
petrochemical industry, small natural gas users etc. In the sector of power generation, of
combustion and gasification of low grade fuels and of waste incineration, considerable
advantages concerning air quality and plant compactness could be realised, although all
these potential applications require modifications or innovations of the conceptual study
of the equipment/process with respect to conventional design, so drastic that they may
exceed the industrial risk margins of a single manufacturer.
Therefore, further effort in Research (in particular fundamental work, as the basic
mechanisms are not yet fully understood) and in Technical Development (also in mature
sectors neglected for substantial innovation) are required in order to establish
applications that combine environmental advantages with improved economics.
REFERENCES
2. 2nd Int. High Temperature Air Comb. (HTAC) Symposium – Koahsing, Taiwan,
1999.
13. R. TANAKA, New Progress of Energy Saving Technology toward the 21st
Century, Advanced Combustion Technology for Industry – 11th IFRF Members
Conference, Nordwijkerhout, May 1995.
18. Bruno C., Filippi M., and Vallini, L., “Flameless Combustion and its
Application to Aeroengines”, Paper ISABE 99-7099, presented at the XIV
International Symposium on AirBreathing Engines, Florence, Sept. 5-10, 1999.