INDUSTRIAL INSTALLATION
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| FIGURE 1 A Cell-Rapid Mix Burner
(C-RMB) installation. |
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The first commercial application of the
burner was installed at TomaTek, a tomato processing facility in
central California. The application involved the retrofit of two
80,000 lb/hr “D” style package watertube boilers. The customer
was required to meet an emission limit of 6 ppm NOx and 90 ppm CO on
both boilers.
The system’s design
incorporated two burner cells in a vertically stacked configuration
with each cell having a heat release of 50 million Btuh. A new
combustion air fan was supplied to provide up to 25% excess air and
45% flue gas recirculation, (FGR) and it was mounted directly above
the burner windbox. No boiler modifications were required to allow
operation at these ultra-low emission levels, and the burners were
installed into an existing windbox. A new burner management and
combustion control system was installed to allow precise control of
fuel, air, and FGR during operation.
The
burners demonstrated the ability to operate at less than 5 ppm NOx
between 35% and 45% FGR. The burner excess air levels ranged from
approximately 35% at low fire to 25% at high fire. Both units were
set up to operate below 5 ppm NOx and have been operated in automatic
with a ramp rate from 20% to 100% firing rate within three minutes.
A picture of the burner installation is shown
in Figure 1 and operating data from the emissions source test is
shown in Table 1. The testing demonstrated that the burners were able
to operate at NOx levels as low as 3.5 ppm before CO emissions would
exceed 50 ppm.
THE RESULT
The two-cell concept has proven extremely successful for operating at less than 5 ppm NOx, and it can accommodate boilers with heat inputs up to 120 million Btuh. The C-RMB not only reduces costs and space requirements, but it is a proven alternative to the catalytic control of NOx emissions. Based on the success of the first two units, TomaTek ordered another C-RMB to retrofit a third boiler at this site.
TB
