Development of the Radiation Stabilized Distributed Flux Burner, Phase II Final Report

This report covers progress made during Phase 2 of a three-phase DOE-sponsored project to develop and demonstrate the Radiation Stabilized Distributed Flux burner (also referred to as the Radiation Stabilized Burner, or RSB) for use in industrial watertube boilers and process heaters. The goal of the DOE-sponsored work is to demonstrate an industrial boiler burner with NOx emissions below 9 ppm and CO emissions below 50 ppm (corrected to 3% stack oxygen). To be commercially successful, these very low levels of NOx and CO must be achievable without significantly affecting other measures of burner performance such as reliability, turndown, and thermal efficiency. Phase 1 of the project demonstrated that sub-9 ppm NOx emissions and sub-50 ppm CO emissions (corrected to 3% oxygen) could be achieved with the RSB in a 3 million Btu/Hr laboratory boiler using several methods of NOx reduction. The RSB was also tested in a 60 million Btu/hr steam generator used by Chevron for Thermally Enhanced Oil Recovery (TEOR). In the larger scale tests, fuel staging was demonstrated, with the RSB consistently achieving sub-20 ppm NOx and as low as 10 ppm NOx. Large-scale steam generator tests also demonstrated that flue gas recirculation (FGR) provided a more predictable and reliable method of achieving sub-9 ppm NOx levels. Based on the results of tests at San Francisco Thermal and Chevron, the near-term approach selected by Alzeta for achieving low NOx is to use FGR. This decision was based on a number of factors, with the most important being that FGR has proved to be an easier approach to transfer to different facilities and boiler designs. In addition, staging has proved difficult to implement in a way that allows good combustion and emissions performance in a fully modulating system. In Phase 3 of the project, the RSB will be demonstrated as a very low emissions burner product suitable for continuous operation in a commercial installation. As such, the Phase 3 field demonstration will represent the first installation in which the RSB will be operated continuously with a sub-9 ppm guarantee