Development of a Staged Oxy-fuel Flat-jet Burner

Abstract

The need for increased thermal effciencies of industrial combustion technology has dictated the necessity for enhanced heat transfer rates. Recently, by overcoming the concentrated heat flux problems prevalent in traditional oxy-fuel burners, flat-jet burner designs have gained acceptance in the glass and metal melting industries. However, the sometimes-unavoidable nitrogen ingress in production furnaces has lead to unwanted NOx emissions, even in flames fed by uncontaminated fuels and high purity oxygen. The effectiveness of reburn chemistry to reduce NOx emissions was examined through oxygen staging of a flat-jet oxy-fuel flame. Varying burner design parameters were explored, in the backdrop of heat transfer characteristics, where experimental and computational studies mutually complemented the evaluations. Increasing the degree of oxidant staging produced a reduction in exhaust gas NOx emissions, as is typical of recent staged burner designs, accompanied by increases in both furnace load heat transfer and combustion system thermal effciency in the more successful design configurations.