CHAPTER – 7

BASIC COMBUSTION COURSE

COMBUSTION:

 Fire is actually a chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen that produces heat.
 CH4 + 2O2 + N2 = CO2 + 2H20 + N2 + HEAT
 In real world we use Air (nitrogen 87.1% and oxygen 20.9%) and Natural gas (85%-96% methane)
 The heat value of natural gas is rated at standard pipeline conditions which is 30” W.C of mercury at 60F
 The heating value can range between 970 and 1150 btu/ft3 but is typically supplied between 1000 and
1025
 Basic combustion formula: To completely burn one cubic foot of natural gas, we need 2 parts of oxygen for
every part of methane. Since only 1/5th of air oxygen, we need 10 cubic ft. of air to burn one cubic ft. of
natural gas

FLUE GAS EMISSIONS:

 Combustion process of methane has about 50 intermediate steps. Heavier the gas, more steps there are.
 If proper conditions are not met, combustion stops and CO and various forms of aldehydes are formed as
flue gases
 A short blue flame is considered as fast burning flame and long yellow flame is considered to be slow
burning flame.
 Following factors effects flame burning speed:
o Air to fuel ratio: Natural gas burns when the mixture is between 5 to 14% fuel. Fastest at 10.5%
o Mixing(turbulence): Better mixing = faster flame
o Temperature: hotter mixture = faster flame
 Combustion products in the flue can be considered in one of three classes below:
o Always formed combustion products: CO2 and water vapor, proportional to fuel burned
o Abnormal combustion products: Measured in ppm. When fuel molecules are not fully converted,
frozen intermediate products like, CO (40ppm for indirect, 5ppm for direct), Aldehydes (low flame
temp), NOx (due to higher flame temp, forms nitric acid with water) are present in the flue gases.
o Unpredictable combustion products: SOx, acids. Depends on impurities in air and fuel.
 Water vapor formed in combustion has a latent heat value of 970 Btu/lb. It is only possible to recover this
heat in condensing furnace. As the fuel gets heavier, there is less water but more CO2 is formed.

BURNERS:

 A burner is a device which mixes air and fuel, ignites the mixture, provides a stable flame environment and
supervises the flame. Another important burner characteristic is how well it operates under part load
conditions
 Air-Fuel mixing: The fuel flows through pressurized gas passages to one or more orifices and begins to mix
with the air. Mixing efficiency has a large bearing on how efficient the burner is.
 Igniting the mixture: The main flame is ignited using a pilot flame, hot surface ignition element or a direct
spark to main flame. There are several variations:
o Standing pilot (Hot water tank): This style of pilot is always on and flame is monitored by a
thermocouple located in the pilot flame. This will not relight itself if the wind blows it out, not
suitable for outdoor installations. Lowest cost
 o Intermittent pilot (Most popular): When there is a heat call, pilot is electrically lit. After pilot flame
has been sensed, the main valve is opened. As long as there is a heat call, both pilot and main
burners are on until the heat call is satisfied; at that point both main flame and pilot are shut off.
This systems is safer, robust, needs more controls and costlier than standing pilot
o Interrupted pilot (Our preferred method): When there is a heat call, pilot is electrically lit. After
pilot flame has been sensed, the main valve is opened. After the main burner is lit, pilot is turned off.
At this point, flame sensing device has to sense main flame. In the intermittent pilot system, it is
possible to sense the pilot flame, open the main valve and not lit the main burner.. This cannot
happen in interrupted pilot system. This systems is safer, robust, needs more controls and costlier
than intermittent pilot system
o Hot surface ignition: Simply put, this is an electric pilot. A special high temp electric heating element
is energized until it warms up to over 1400F. At this point, the main valve is opened and the hot
heating element lights the main flame. The heating element typically uses between 100-500 watts.

 Stable flame environment (flame retention): Natural gas flame speed is between 40 and 250 ft/min. For a
stable flame environment, we need to keep the flame burning in one location. This is accomplished by
adding a flame retention device. It has a minimum of two velocity zones
o Zone 1(High velocity area): The openings are restricted such that the fuel mixture is initially
accelerated to a high speed to enter retention device. This is effectively a flame barrier
o Zone 2 (Low velocity area): In this zone of FR device, the mixture is slowed down to well below
40ft/min so that flame can catchup with air-fuel mixture. The flame appears glued in place.

 Supervising the flame: To prevent unsafe conditions, it is important to detect flame. The main valve should
only be opened if the existence of a pilot or similar ignition can be proved. Following can be used to prove
flame:
o Thermocouple (Hot water tank): It’s a heat sensing device which converts some of heat energy to a
tiny amount of electrical energy which is used to keep a mechanical safety shutoff valve open. If the
pilot goes out, electrical energy goes away and SSOV shuts off but not completely because it’s a tiny
electrical energy and is done manually. It takes time to warm or cool a thermocouple. If the pilot
blows out and there is a heat call before the thermocouple has cooled down, the main valve will still
open and dump raw gas into HX until thermocouple has cooled(4-6 sec)
o Thermopile: It is a thermocouple on steroids which can produce enough electrical energy to
operate a specific valve. It is generally used on standing pilot applications where a thermostat or
remote control switch is required but there is no AC power available. It costs more and takes more
time to cool or warm up and it could be a safety issue
o Flame rod: It uses electrical properties of the flame to detect presence of fire (flame rectification).
The electrical signal itself is very weak and must be amplified by a flame relay or flame safeguard
control. Flame sensing speed is in milliseconds and costs involved are moderate. Flame rods have
two problems:
 The flame rod has to be in direct contact with the flame and should be made of suitable
material to withstand high temp.
 The flame road insulator is sensitive to being shorted by water and dirt buildup. Flame rods
are designed to detect this and initiate flame failure.
 Ultraviolet sensor: Natural gas and propane gas produce ultraviolet light when burned and this light is
detected by UV sensor. Advantage: no direct contact with the flame. Disadvantages: UV light from sun or
spark can be interpreted as false flame, cannot be used to sense oil flame and gets too hot if close to flame,
at low fire sensing is hard, decreased reliability if sensor is too hot or too cold due to water vapor
 Cadmium sulfide sensor (CDS CELL): Yellow light detector used to detect flame in oil burners.
 PART LOAD OPERATION

 Most burners perform OK at high fire but differences show up at reduced firing rates.
 At 50% burner firing rate, velocity through retention device would fall by half and mixing effectiveness is
reduced by a factor of 4
 The burner design must overcome both low mixture velocity and poor mixing
 Ratio between full and low fire is turn down ratio

TYPES OF BURNERS

 Burners are classified by the mechanical methods used to bring the combustion air and fuel together
 Primary combustion air is mixed with the fuel before the mixture is ignited. Its main job is to provide
enough air to get the flame started.
 Secondary air is introduced into the flame after the fire is established. It is responsible to obtain complete
combustion
 Excess combustion air is any air that is not required by combustion, passes through flame and picks up heat
and proceeds to travel out of flue and is a direct energy loss (cfm x temp rise). Excess air is bad for
efficiency.
 Because of real world conditions and ETL testing (at least 15% excess air to pass) of burner, we ship our
units with 20% - 30% excess air as 15% caused issues.

Atmospheric burners:

 These burners rely on orifice velocity and convection forces to premix some air and fuel
 First, the pressurized fuel exists the orifice at high velocity into a formed venture and induces some
primary combustion air into the venture where gas and primary mix.
 The mixture then passes through combustion ports in flame retention device and is ignited as it leaves the
ports. At this point additional combustion air is drawn into the flame by natural convection forces.
 To ensure complete combustion, this burner required 70% to 120% extra combustion air which is warmed
by flame and simply carries the heat out of the flue thus reducing combustion efficiency.
 To accommodate weak mixing forces, retention device has to have very low pressure drop (low velocity).
These burners are simple and work quite well in on/off applications
 When these burners are equipped with a modulating or 2-stage gas valve, modulating range is usually
ranged between 50% and 100% fire. At 50% input, the already weak mixing is reduced by a factor of 4 and
already low velocity in retention device is reduced to half. Both these factors limit this burner to 2-1 turn
down. Below 50% the burners are required to cycle on and off, a disadvantage for make-up air units.

Induced draft burners:

 These are a variation of atm. Burners but have a blower mounted in the flue which can provide more
efficient air control. The burner still requires excess combustion air and low fire is still limited to 50%
 Volume out of the blower changes with respect to density of flue gases as temp varies from -40F to over
500F at high fire.
 This mass flow change causes combustion problems. High mass flow when light off makes it hard to light
the burner. High mass flow at low fire (cool flue) increase excess air decreases efficiency
 Some manufacturers are starting to use a two speed induced draft fan
 Power burners:

 These burners utilize a combustion air blower and special designed burner mixing/flame retention head.
The pressurized combustion air provides for more turbulent and complete air to fuel mixing. This
improved mixing allows for less excess air and thus improves combustion efficiency.
 The combustion blower energy also allows the use of more restrictive flame retention heads which allows
burner to operate with low fire rate (4% to 25%).
 The end result is a burner which requires less combustion air and can operate at much smaller low fire rate.

Power burners with induced draft fans:

 Internal pressure drops of HX adds static to the combustion air blower which results in reduced
combustion air delivered by the blower which causes maximum allowable firing rate of that burner to go
down.
 To counteract this effect, an induced draft fan is used which is designed to assist combustion blower to
overcome static from HX
 When combustion air blower is throttled down, draft fan fights the throttle and results in less control of the
combustion air. Induced draft fans tend to change the flame pattern inside HX which causes reduction in
flame efficiency.

Direct fired burners:

 These burners don’t have HX or flue; they release all the combustion products directly into the air stream. A
natural gas DFB is only 91% efficient as it doesn’t condense any water vapor.
 DFB can be considered as power burner.
 Supply blower pulls air >pressure drop across profile plate and burner> forces combustion air through
air/fuel mixing holes located on the burner plates.

BURNER OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS

 For indirect fired burners, CO limit is considered to be 400ppm in a free air sample. Direct fired units burns
so clean as the excess air present will dilute combustion products
 Burners are all designed to burn cleanly when the air fuel mixture ratio is within the normal operating
range
 If the combustion air is gradually reduced (rich mixture), there will not be enough combustion air to burn
and emissions will rise
 When a flame has exact amount of combustion air, flame temp will be around 2400F. If combustion air is
gradually added (lean mixture), excess air carries away heat from flame and of temp falls below 1100F it is
hard to keep all the combustion steps keep going thus increasing emissions.
 As the firing rate is reduced, clean operating range becomes narrower

PROBLEMS IN SYNCHRONIZING THE AIR AND FUEL FLOW (INTERESTING TOPIC)

 Mechanical devices like dampers and valves have non-linear opening curve. Synchronizing the air and fuel
opening curves can be very difficult.
 On DJ AND DG controls, the opening curves for air and fuel are programmed into the control system and
each curve is independently controlled and allows us to keep burning within clean burning range.
 At low fire rates, air and fuel opening curves are steepest, also where the burner clean operating range is
the narrowest and needs the best control

BURNER CONTROL METHODS (read topic again)

 Higher the amount of outside air and severe the application, better the control system has to be
 Turn down ratios effect temp control. Higher the turn down ratio, better the low fire temp control

Control strategies:

o On/off control: Causes discharge temp swings and increases HX stresses due to thermal cycling
o Two stage control: The burner is operating in one of three possible modes on, off or high. While this
is better than former but temp is still changing, HX is constantly warming up and cooling
o Modulating gas: The gas flow is adjusted to provide just the correct amount of heat. It is hardest to
do properly. Burners are mechanical devices and they have certain limits such as;
 Low fire setting: This is the minimum firing rate the burner can operate at before it is
necessary to start cycling the burner on and off
 Control resolution: While the burner may be theoretically operated at an infinite number of
steps between high and low fire, the control systems (valves and operators) cannot
practically provide an infinite number of steps. A good system will have over 200 steps
 Air to fuel ratios: If a burner is adjusted to burn too lean or too rich, it will produce excess
emissions. Typically, as the firing rate is decreased, it becomes harder to keep burner
operating cleanly
 Control linearity: Mechanical devices have opening curves. Often the position with the
steepest curves occurs close to low fire

EFFICIENCY

 Efficiency is the comparison of the heat energy outputted from the furnace compared to the potential heat
energy of the gas going into the furnace.
 Combustion efficiency is based on determining how much heat has been removed from the initial flame by
checking how much heat is left in the flue
 Combustion efficiency = 100% - % of flue losses
 Flue losses are made up of following items:
o Temp rise of dry flue products- 5% to 12%
o Latent heat content of water vapor formed during combustions. This is about 9% for natural gas
o Elevated temp of any condensed water – 2%
o Any unburned or partially burned fuel in flue gases represent unreleased heat energy- less than
0.5%