Furnace design and

operation

Industrial burners
Fuel preparation

 The first step in designing or operating a burner is to

ensure that the fuel is correctly prepared for combustion
 For gaseous fuels this is simply a matter of controlling
the mass flowrate and pressure
 For liquid and solid fuels, the fuel is atomised (liquids) or
pulverised (solids) and dispersed into the flame jet to
„mimic‟ a homogeneous gas/air mixture
 More combustion problems arise from poor fuel
preparation than from any other source
Importance of Particle &
Drop Size
 Size affects burnout
 The largest particles maybe small in number but
contain a significant proportion of the mass of fuel
 Size measured in microns (10-6 metre)
 Relatively easy to measure for solid fuels
 Collect sample and sieve
 Very difficult to measure for liquid fuels
 Can only be done optically
• Density of spray a major issue especially for industrial size
applications (up to 10 tonnes/h)
Importance of Particle &
Drop Size

 Rule of Thumb - useful for diagnosing problems

 In typical industrial applications the residence time of
a particle in a flame is 1/2 to 1 second
 The burning time of a typical 100  coal or HFO
particle in an industrial flame is 1/2 to 1s
 Particles larger than 200  WON‟T BURN
 Many commercial oil burners produce larger
drops - some up to 1000 
Importance of Particle &
Drop Size

 Alcoa calciner
 Oil or gas fired
 Primative atomisers
• Drop size > 1000 micron

 Severe build-up
Particle & Drop Size
 For convenience drops and particles are normally measured in size
bands, typically of 5-10 micron and plotted on a histogram
 The average or mean particle size is largely meaningless from a
combustion perspective because the very large number of small
particles bias the arithmetical average to a relatively low value,
suggesting that the spray or coal grind is finer than it is in reality
 Averages based on the mass of the particles, or their surface area,
are often used
 For example for oil the Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD), which is the
diameter of a droplet that is equivalent to the total mass of spray/total
surface area
SMD = Σ (ΔNi) di3
Σ (ΔNi) di2
di = the average diameter of a sub-band of drops
ΔNi = the fractional count of drops in sub-band di
Particle & Drop Size

 Rosin Rammler Distribution

 Developed for coal - works just as well for sprays
(If you can get the input data!)

a
R = 100 e -bD

Where R = mass residue (oversize)

D = drop diameter
a & b are constants
Particle & Drop Size

 Rosin Rammler Distribution

 By taking logs twice and turning the left hand side
upside down we get

ln(ln[100/R]) = a ln(D) + ln(b)

 ln(ln[100/R]) against lnD is a straight line

 The steeper the slope the narrower the range of particle
sizes
Particle & Drop Size

Rosin Rammler
Plot
Mechanism of Atomisation

Fuel pressure only Using compressed air

Mechanism of Atomisation
Spray Geometry

 Spatial distribution of drops

 Influences flame shape
 Influences fuel/air mixing
 Typical included spray angle 60o
to 120o

 Hollow cone sprays normally

used in combustion applications
Classification of atomisers
Atomiser designs

Simple pressure jet Twin-fluid atomiser Y-jet

Atomisation - Prediction of
Flowrates

 Pressure Jet

Q = k1 x do2 x p0.5

 PJ atomisers are characterised by the FN (Flow Number)

FN = Q/ p0.5

 Limits turndown ratio to approx 2:1

 FN (k1) determined experimentally
Atomisation - Prediction of
Flowrates

 Twin Fluid
 Flow/pressure
characteristcs very
complex
 Intraction between
2 fluids
 Can only be
presented
graphically
Prediction of Drop Size -
Pressure Jet

Dm = k1 x Q0.32 / p0.53 micron

Eliminating Q

Dm  do 0.55 / p0.39 micron

 Strong dependence on pressure
 Gives very limited turnown - 2:1
 Large atomisers give coarser sprays
Prediction of Drop Size -
Twin Fluid

 Wigg‟s equation
Dm = 200 0.5 W 0.1 (1+W/A) 0.5 h 0.1  0.2 micron
pa 0.3 V
Where:
W = fuel flow rate
A&p = atomizing fluid flowrate & density
& = fuel kinematic viscosity & surface tension
h = height of atomizing fluid annulus
V = relative velocity (liquid to atomizing fluid)
Turndown Ratio

 Pressure Jet
 Poor, typically 2:1
 unless special designs are used such as “duplex”, spill return,
steam assisted
 Twin Fluid
 Good, typically 8:1
 up to 20:1 with special designs
Enhanced turndown

Spill return pressure jet Duplex pressure jet

Pulverisation

 To produce pulverized coal requires

 Drying
 Grinding
 Classification
Pulverisation

 Drying - Required so particles do not stick

 Two types of moisture
 Surface of free moisture
 Inherent or bound moisture
 Dried by heating with hot air or flue gas
 Surface of free moistureremoved first
 Inherent or bound moisture removed second
 If coal over dried inherent moisture tends to re-combine
exothemically
Pulverisation

 Grinding
 Three basic techniques
 impact - by hammers or heavy balls
 crushing - by rollers
 attrition - particle against particle - turbulent flow
 Energy intensive process
 Harder material requires more power
 The finer the grind the higher the energy consumed
 Coal is soft - petroleum coke is hard & abrasive
Pulverisation

 Comminution theories
 Rittinger‟s law 1867
 energy requirement  new surface produced
 Kick - 1885
 energy requirement  volume or weight of the body
 Bond‟s 3rd Theory of Comminution
 energy requirement  new crack length produced

E = 2c (1/Xp0.5 - 1/Xf 0.5)

Xf = feed size , Xp = product size

Pulverisation

 Coal mill capacity

 Harder coal gives lower output for same fineness
 Hardgrove Index (HI) - measure of grindability
 Standard test to ASTM D409 (1971)
• Coal is ground in a test mill
• Sieved through a 75 micron mesh to measure R

HI = 13 + 3.465 (100-R)
 Soft coals give small residues - large HI
 Standard mill outputs quoted at HI = 50
 Range 30 for very hard to 110 for very soft
Gas burners

 Gas burners fall into two categories

 premixed - where the fuel and most of the air are mixed
together prior to passing through the nozzle. Note that these
burners often introduce a small proportion of the air separate
from the fuel as secondary air
 diffusion - where the fuel and most of the air are introduced
separately and are mixed within the furnace. Combustion is then
controlled by the rate at which the air mixes with the fuel. Note
that these burners often mix a small proportion of the air with
the fuel as primary air
Premixed gas burners

 Premixed burners generally are used where the required

heat liberation is relatively small and a high combustion
intensity flame is required
 Since the slowest of the four steps, mixing, has been accomplished
prior to entry into the combustion chamber, the heat release is
controlled by the reaction kinetics instead of the fuel/air mixing
 The following characteristics typify premix flames
 Flames are small in volume relative to heat release rate
 High combustion efficiency i.e. small fraction of un-reacted or partially
reacted fuel
 Non-luminous (little soot formation) and low radiant heat transfer
efficiency
 Noisy (relative to heat release rate)
Premix burners

Tunnel burner (Nozzle mix) Venturi burner (Entrained mix)

Premix burners
 The nozzle mixing system requires that both the air and gas are
supplied under pressure.
 Subject to the pressures available, high velocities can be achieved.
Indeed high velocities are required to prevent “burn back” into the
mixture tube.
 The mixing is complete prior to the refractory tunnel where the
combustion reactions occur.
 Provided some excess air has been supplied, combustion is also
complete or nearly complete at the tunnel exit
 The venturi mixer relies on the gas pressure to entrain the
combustion air from the atmosphere.
 Since the entrainment rate is a function of the gas momentum, the fuel
must be supplied under sufficient pressure to achieve the mixing and
overcome any back pressure from the furnace.
 This tends to limit venturi mixers to furnaces that are under suction or
have very low back pressure
Premix burners
 The need to remain within the lower and upper limits of
flammability puts a tight limit on the operation of these burners
 It is essential that, when varying heat release, the mixture is
maintained within the flammable limits at all times. Even
momentary excursion outside the limits will result in flame out
 This problem is more acute with the internal nozzle mix burner than
the venturi type
 The venturi is effectively self-proportioning since the air entrained is
proportional to the gas jet momentum, hence the air/fuel ratio remains
approximately constant for all gas flows
 The nozzle mix burner requires an effective proportioning control
system to achieve turn down
Effect of excess air
 Owing to the very fast reaction rates achieved following premixing,
together with the non-luminous flame, there is very little radiant
heat transfer from the flame, hence the actual flame temperature
approaches the adiabatic flame temperature

Natural gas
Radiant wall burners
 Premixed flames produce very little soot and therefore have low
emissivity and low rates of radiant heat transfer
 In effect, premix burners are hot gas producers and the majority of
heat transfer is by convection
 In radiant wall furnaces a matrix of burners installed in a refractory
wall is used to heat the wall and the hot refractory radiates to the
load
Safety in premixed burners
 When the mixture is within flammable limits there is the ever
present risk that the flame front will travel back though the nozzle
or flash-back
 Flash-back is prevented by a combination of two techniques
 Maintaining a nozzle exit velocity that exceeds the flame speed of the
fuel
 Using a nozzle velocity that exceeds the flame speed prevents the flame
front propagating against the gas velocity. Use of this technique limits the
safe turndown ratio because the nozzle exit velocity falls as the mixture flow
rate is reduced, so the flame cannot be turned down below the safe nozzle
exit velocity
 Using a nozzle design that is, in effect, a flame arrestor
 Flame arrestor nozzles function by reducing the mixture temperature below
the ignition temperature, extinguishing the flame front in the event that the
ignition point begins to propagate through the nozzle. This is achieved by
using gas ports with long length and small diameter
Flame arrestors
Example
 A premixed flame flashes back into a burner tube of 12.5 mm internal
diameter at a mean flow velocity of 1.2 m/s. The mixture density is 1.05
kg/m3 and its viscosity is 150 x 10-6 micropoise. The minimum operating
mixture flowrate for the burner is 15 cm3/s, thus it is proposed to fit a
metal plug to the end of the pipe with four drilled holes of equal diameter.
What is the maximum allowable hole diameter?

If the gas flow is laminar, we can use Poiseuille‟s equation to determine the critical
velocity gradient for flashback, gf.

Calculate Reynolds Number for burner tube at flashback

Re = (1.2 x 0.0125 x 1.05)/(150 x 10-6 x 0.1) = 1050 i.e. laminar flow
Example (cont)
Poiseuille‟s equation states
 r2 
u  2v1 2 
 R 
Where u - velocity at radius r
v - mean velocity
R - tube radius
The critical velocity gradient is given by the differential of this equation
u  2r 
gr    2v  2 
r  R 
4vr
gr  2
R
If we assume that the critical velocity gradient occurs at the wall of the tube, i.e.r=R then

4v 4x1.2
gr    768 m/s /m
R 0.0125
2
Example (cont)
Assuming that the flow is divided evenly between the four drilled holes, flow/hole =
15/(4x1000000) = 0.00000375m3/s. thus if the maximum hole radius is R‟
πR'2 v'  0.00000375
where v‟ is the mixture velocity in the hole. By rearranging the critical velocity gradient
equation we get
grR
v' 
4
thus
πR'3 gr
 0.00000375
4
0.00000375x 4
R'3 
π x768
R'  0.00184 m

Thus the maximum hole diameter to avoid flashback is 3.67 mm

FLOX burners
FLOX burners
Diffusion gas burners

 The great majority of industrial furnace burners are

turbulent jet diffusion burners
 In the turbulent jet flame the fuel is generally supplied
via a central jet and the combustion air is supplied co-
axially surrounding the fuel jet
Gas ports
Primary air
through swirler

Primary air
through annulus
Oil burners

 Premix oil burners are limited to very volatile fuels such

as naphtha and kerosene which, owing to their high cost
have little industrial application
 Industrial oil burners consist of an air register to control
the combustion airflow, a means of stabilising the flame
and the atomiser
Oil atomiser
 An igniter may also Primary air
be provided to through swirler
assist start-up
Primary air
through annulus
Smelter oil burner
Register oil burner

Windbox

Oil gun

Air swirler

Damper
Flame stabilisation
Flame stabilisation
Turndown
 Most burners are required to operate over a range of heat liberation
and therefore fuel flow rates
 Performance of oil burners normally deteriorates under reduced
load conditions owing to reduced energy for fuel/air mixing as a
consequence of the lower air velocity and, in some cases, larger
drops resulting from poorer atomisation, especially where simple
pressure jet atomisers are used
 For some atomisers the spray angle also changes under turndown
conditions
 The two principle types of atomiser used in furnace burners are
pressure jet atomizers and twin fluid atomisers
Atomiser design -pressure
jet
Atomiser design - pressure
jet
 Pressure jet atomisers have the advantage of simplicity and the fact
that the pressure-flow relationship follows the normal square root
law but they suffer from poor turndown
 The flow through pressure jet atomisers is given by a modified version
of Bernoulli‟s equation
Q = k1 x do2 x p0.5
Where
Q = the flow rate
do = exit orifice diameter
p = the fuel supply pressure
k1 = a constant
 It is common to combine the constant, k1 and the orifice diameter, do
into a single constant that characterises the atomiser. This constant is
known as the Flow Number (FN)
FN = Q/ p0.5
Atomiser design - pressure
jet
 The drop size produced by a pressure jet atomiser is strongly
dependent on the fuel viscosity and the surface tension

SMD = 7.3σ0.6υ0.2m0.25Δ p -0.4micron

Where
σ = surface tension (N/m)
υ = viscosity (m2s)
m = mass flow (kg/s)
Δ p=pressure drop across atomiser (Pa)
 For any given atomiser, the fuel viscosity has the greatest effect on
drop size and viscosities should be in the range 15-20 cSt (15x10-6
m2/s) for satisfactory atomisation
 Atomisers designed for high pressure operation relative to flow, i.e.
small FN and orifice diameter produce smaller drop sizes,
conversely low pressure atomisers with large orifices (high FN)
result in very large drop sizes
Atomiser design - pressure
jet
 Normally oil
supply pressures
of 3.5 MPa (500
psig) and above
are needed for
effective
atomisation with
large burners
utilising heavy
fuel oil

Calibration curve for wide turndown spill return

pressure jet atomiser
Duplex pressure jet
Twin fluid atomisers
 To overcome the limitations of pressure jet atomisers, and use
lower oil pressures with higher turndown ratios, twin fluid atomisers
can be used.
 In this case a second fluid, usually steam or compressed air,
provides the energy for atomisation
 The atomising energy is independent of the oil flow rate and drop
size is more consistent throughout the operating range
 Higher turndown ratios are achievable, 8:1 being typical with even
higher turndown ratios available from special designs
 Twin fluid atomisers do not follow the normal pressure flow-
relationship and each fluid has to be separately controlled
 Normally the flow of oil is measured and controlled, with the atomising
fluid set to a constant pressure, or controlled to a differential pressure
relative to the oil pressure
Air atomised burner
Twin fluid atomiser
designs
Flow characteristics
Coal burners

 Pulverized coal firing has many advantages over other

forms of coal firing and makes burning coal similar to oil
 Since coal is generally cheaper than either oil or gas it
becomes the economically preferred fuel, where the ash
and trace chemicals can be accommodated by the
process
 Power and steam boilers
 Cement and other minerals processing
 Steelmaking
 Burning coal requires a flexibility of burner design to
allow the use of differing grades of fuel
Coal burners

 Pulverised coal burners are similar to oil burners but the

atomiser is replaced with a coal nozzle
 The fine coal is air conveyed to the nozzle
 The fine coal has a tendency to form localised concentrations in
the conveying air. This effect is known as “roping”
 The burner incorporates a means of breaking the rope and
improving the coal distribution in the conveying air prior to
discharge into the furnace
 Unlike oil and gas burners, it is quite safe to rely on re-
radiation from the furnace walls or a refractory quarl to
stabilise the flame when coal firing, owing to the low
ignition temperature of most coals
Coal burners

 Owing to the abrasive nature of the pulversied coal, the

coal nozzle is effectively an open ended pipe
 The critical performance criteria is that the primary jet
momentum is matched to the secondary air momentum to
produce the correct rate of fuel/air mixing so that the optimum
heat release pattern is produced for the material being
processed

 Indirect firing systems use conveying primary air and

additional momentum is derived by using multi-channel
burners
 Good for difficult fuels like anthracite or petroleum coke
Coal burner

Typical pulverised coal burner

with auxiliary oil firing