AIR PRODUCTS ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS INITIATIVE :
LARGE SCALE VORTEX BURNERS FOR LOW NOx EMISSIONS
Air Products today announced the commercial availability of Large Scale Vortex Burner technology, designed to significantly decrease nitrous oxide (NOx) air emissions and provide environmental and operational benefits to combustion industry applications. The Large Scale Vortex Burner is Air Products' latest portfolio offering as part of its recently announced Environmental Solutions Initiative. The addition of the Large Scale VortexBurner enhances the portfolio of products in combustion processes and burner designs from Air Products' 35 years of experience in glass, steel, non-ferrous, power generation and other industrial markets.
At the heart of this new technology is a proprietary fluidic flame stabilizer, which enables the primary flame to operate at ultra-lean conditions for low NOx operation. A typical mechanical flame retention device, used in current burner designs, requires more fuel to keep the primary flame attached at the burner; however it produces higher NOx emissions. Instead of a mechanical stabilizer, the new Air Products burner anchors the primary flame by a designed mismatch in velocity between flowing fuel and flowing air, generating a large scale vortex of the oxidant and fuel as they mix. This new flame stabilizing method requires very little fuel in the primary flame, which keeps temperatures low and almost eliminates NOx emissions. The burner's remaining fuel is introduced through proprietary fuel nozzle tips designed for rapid fuel dilution without customary clogging problems. The overall result is a relatively low-temperature and uniformly-distributed spacious flame for low NOx operation.
"This technology offers companies with operations including high temperature processes, a combustion solution to their environmental compliance strategies. Our burner retrofit project at a hydrogen plant in New Orleans (La.) has confirmed the ultra-low NOx potential of this novel technology. In addition to achieving low NOx, the uniform heat distribution reduced tube-wall temperatures by 10 degrees, while maintaining both plant production and efficiency levels. The easy retrofit design made the installation of this technology very economical and reduced the operator maintenance required to operate the new burners. Making the burner available through our newly-created Environmental Solutions business should definitely create more value to our customers," said David Ashworth, director, Chemical and Process Industries Global Services and Solutions at Air Products.
In March, Air Products announced its Environmental Solutions Initiative with the potential to save companies in non-attainment regions millions of dollars in environmental compliance costs. Through Air Products' Environmental Solutions Initiative, part of its growing CPI Global Service and Solutions business area, the company developed a patent-pending business method that simultaneously evaluates plant and industry environmental capital costs, emission forecasts, allowance caps and production options, and delivers a unique array of cost-effective environmental solutions.
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