Flameless oxyfuel combustion for fuel consumption and nitrogen oxides emissions reductions and productivity increase

Abstract

In order to achieve very low emission of nitrogen oxides, a ‘flameless’ combustion process that uses oxygen, the so called ‘flameless oxyfuel’ combustion, has been developed. This new combustion technology is characterised by a lower temperature flame, more uniform temperature distribution and low concentrations of oxygen as well as nitrogen inside the combustion chamber. This work presents a description and the main features of the flameless oxyfuel combustion, the effect of flame structure and temperature on the heat transfer, the comparison of flameless oxyfuel and flameless air fuel combustion results of laboratory tests of new type of flameless oxyfuel burner, as well as examples of industrial applications. This newly developed and applied combustion technology guarantees fuel consumption reduction (thus CO2 reduction), increase in productivity as well as drastic reduction of nitrogen oxides emission when applied, for example, to thermal treatment processes of wastes, and to the recovery of zinc bearing feed in a rotary kiln.