Combustion technology has traditionally been dominated by air/fuel combustion. However, two developments have increased the significance of oxygen-enhanced combustion—new technologies that produce oxygen less expensively and the increased importance of environmental regulations. Advantages of oxygen-enhanced combustion include less pollutant emissions as well as increased energy efficiency and productivity. Oxygen-Enhanced Combustion, Second Edition compiles information about using oxygen to enhance industrial heating and melting processes. It integrates fundamental principles, applications, and equipment design in one volume, making it a unique resource for specialists implementing the use of oxygen in combustion systems. This second edition of the bestselling book has more than doubled in size. Extensively updated and expanded, it covers significant advances in the technology that have occurred since the publication of the first edition. What’s New in This Edition Expanded from 11 chapters to 30, with most of the existing chapters revised A broader view of oxygen-enhanced combustion, with more than 50 contributors from over 20 organizations around the world More coverage of fundamentals, including fluid flow, heat transfer, noise, flame impingement, CFD modeling, soot formation, burner design, and burner testing New chapters on applications such as flameless combustion, steel reheating, iron production, cement production, power generation, fluidized bed combustion, chemicals and petrochemicals, and diesel engines This book offers a unified, up-to-date look at important commercialized uses of oxygen-enhanced combustion in a wide range of industries. It brings together the latest knowledge to assist those researching, engineering, and implementing combustion in power plants, engines, and other applications.

Growing concerns about global climate change have focused effortss on identifying approaches to stabilizing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. One approach utilizes oxy-fuel combustion to produce a concentrated flue gas that will enable economical CO2 capture by direct methods. Oxy-fuel combustion rewuires an Air Separation Unit (ASU) to provide a high-purity stream of oxygen as well as a Compression and Purification Unit (CPU) to clean and compress the CO2 for long term storage. Overall plant efficiency will suffer from the parasitic load of both the ASU and CPU and researchers are investigating techniques to enhance other aspects of the combustion and gas cleanup proceses to improve the benefit-to-cost ratio. This work examines the influence of oxy-fuel combustion and non-carbon based sorbents on the formation and fate of multiple combustion pollutants both numerically and experimentally.

Conventional wisdom says adding oxygen to a combustion system enhances product throughput, system efficiency, and, unless special care is taken, increases NOx emissions. This increase in NOx emissions is typically due to elevated flame temperatures associated with oxygen use leading to added thermal NOx formation. Innovative low flame temperature oxy-fuel burner designs have been developed and commercialized to minimize both thermal and fuel NOx formation for gas and oil fired industrial furnaces. To be effective these systems require close to 100% oxy-fuel combustion and the cost of oxygen is paid for by fuel savings and other benefits. For applications to coal-fired utility boilers at the current cost of oxygen, however, it is not economically feasible to use 100% oxygen for NOx control. In spite of this conventional wisdom, Praxair and its team members, in partnership with the US Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory, have developed a novel way to use oxygen to reduce NOx emissions without resorting to complete oxy-fuel conversion. In this concept oxygen is added to the combustion process to enhance operation of a low NOx combustion system. Only a small fraction of combustion air is replaced with oxygen in the process. By selectively adding oxygen to a low NOx combustion system it is possible to reduce NOx emissions from nitrogen-containing fuels, including pulverized coal, while improving combustion characteristics such as unburned carbon. A combination of experimental work and modeling was used to define how well oxygen enhanced combustion could reduce NOx emissions. The results of this work suggest that small amounts of oxygen replacement can reduce the NOx emissions as compared to the air-alone system. NOx emissions significantly below 0.15 lbs/MMBtu were measured. Oxygen addition was also shown to reduce carbon in ash. Comparison of the costs of using oxygen for NOx control against competing technologies, such as SCR, show that this concept offers substantial savings over SCR and is an economically attractive alternative to purchasing NOx credits or installing other conventional technologies. In conjunction with the development of oxygen based low NOx technology, Praxair also worked on developing the economically enhancing oxygen transport membrane (OTM) technology which is ideally suited for integration with combustion systems to achieve further significant cost reductions and efficiency improvements. This OTM oxygen production technology is based on ceramic mixed conductor membranes that operate at high temperatures and can be operated in a pressure driven mode to separate oxygen with infinite selectivity and high flux. An OTM material was selected and characterized. OTM elements were successfully fabricated. A single tube OTM reactor was designed and assembled. Testing of dense OTM elements was conducted with promising oxygen flux results of 100% of target flux. However, based on current natural gas prices and stand-alone air separation processes, ceramic membranes do not offer an economic advantage for this application. Under a different DOE-NETL Cooperative Agreement, Praxair is continuing to develop oxygen transport membranes for the Advanced Boiler where the economics appear more attractive.

Oxy-fuel Combustion: Fundamentals, Theory and Practice provides a comprehensive review of various aspects of oxy-fuel combustion technology, including its concept, fundamental theory, pilot practice, large-scale feasibility studies and related practical issues, such as the commissioning and operation of an oxy-fuel combustion plant. Oxy-fuel combustion, as the most practical large-scale carbon capture power generation technology, has attracted significant attention in the past two decades. As significant progress has been achieved in worldwide demonstration and the oxy-combustion concept confirmed by Schwartze Pump, CUIDEN, Callide, Ponferrada and Yingcheng projects in the past five years, this book provides a timely addition for discussion and study. Covers oxy-fuel combustion technology Includes concepts, fundamentals, pilots and large-scale feasibility studies Considers related practical issues, such as the commissioning and operation of an oxy-fuel combustion plant Focuses on theories and methods closely related to engineering practice

A furnace that combusts fuel, such as coal, of a given minimum energy content to obtain a stated minimum amount of energy per unit of time is enabled to combust fuel having a lower energy content, while still obtaining at least the stated minimum energy generation rate, by replacing a small amount of the combustion air fed to the furnace by oxygen. The replacement of oxygen for combustion air also provides reduction in the generation of NOx.

Despite the length of time it has been around, its importance, and vast amounts of research, combustion is still far from being completely understood. Issues regarding the environment, cost, and fuel consumption add further complexity, particularly in the process and power generation industries. Dedicated to advancing the art and science of industrial combustion, The John Zink Hamworthy Combustion Handbook, Second Edition: Volume 3 – Applications offers comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of equipment used in the process and power generation industries. Under the leadership of Charles E. Baukal, Jr., top engineers and technologists from John Zink Hamworthy Combustion examine industry applications such as process burners, boiler burners, process flares, thermal oxidizers, and vapor control. This volume builds on the concepts covered in the first two volumes and shows how they are used in combustion applications. The book also features a wealth of color illustrations, photographs, and tables throughout. What’s New in This Edition Expanded to three volumes, with Volume 3 focusing on important industry applications Extensive updates and revisions throughout, reflecting new standards, energy sources, processes, and conservation concerns Expanded coverage of flares and new coverage of biogas flares and flare gas recovery Information on vapor combustors Discussion of pollution control equipment Expanded coverage of commercial and utility boiler burners Chapters on process and air heaters More material on thermal oxidizers A new chapter on marine and offshore applications The third of three volumes in the new, expanded edition of the bestselling handbook, this volume helps you broaden your knowledge of industrial combustion applications to better meet the challenges of this field. For the other volumes in the set, see The John Zink Hamworthy Combustion Handbook, Second Edition: Three-Volume Set.