The present invention is directed to gas fired burners. In particular, the present invention is directed to gas fired burners of the type which may be used in industrial furnaces and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,193 (Loftus et al.) discloses a gas fired burner for use in applications such as chemical process furnaces for process heaters in refineries and chemical plants. The burner is provided with a plurality of fuel gas inlets for enabling manipulation of the flame shape and combustion characteristics of the burner based upon variation in the distribution of fuel gas between the various fuel gas inlets. This invention is directed to varying the pattern of heat flux being produced when the burner apparatus is in operation. However, the invention here is directed to a circular burner with intricate design aimed at achieving a great degree of premixing and reduced NOx emissions. More importantly, the heat flux pattern here is the longitudinal heat flux distribution along the flame. This disclosure does not teach heat flux distribution across the burner opening, perpendicular to the flow of flue gas immediately outside the burner opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,820 (Bicik et al.) teaches a linear burner with jets extending through an opening made in a wall of a body of the burner defining an air-distribution chamber. The jets are connected to a series of tubes for supplying fuel gas or a gas/air mixture with the tubes passing through the body of the burner in order to be connected on the outside to a distribution housing provided with gas or with a gas/air mixture. The housing has a means to selectively supply the tubes joined to the jets. The intent here is to have a burner with a wide range of heating power, or turndown ratio. However, this invention does not teach a single air supply, single fuel supply, and single burner control system so as to simplify the design and reduce costs while achieving an object of a desired heat release profile dictated by process requirements.
Additionally, there are arrangements of a multitude of burners in furnaces that achieve a uniform heat flux at a given elevation and a given heat flux profile along the elevation, such as in a side-fired reformer or a terraced-wall reformer, generally known in the art. However, these burners are individually controlled. They do not share a common fuel supply manifold or a common air supply manifold. As burners, they are not able to deliver specified heat flux profiles in two dimensions simultaneously. In addition, their cost is usually very high because of the need for individual controls.
It would be desirable to have a burner design that would meet specified heat flux profiles in two dimensions (e.g., longitudinal and transverse dimensions) simultaneously. It would also be desirable for the above to be achieved while meeting safety, flame stability, and low-cost requirements.
In a first preferred embodiment, a burner is provided which includes a plurality of burner subunits. The burner subunits share a single air supply, a single fuel supply and a single control system. Each burner subunit has a plurality of air orifices and a plurality of fuel orifices. The plurality of air orifices and the plurality of fuel orifices are of sufficient quantity and each air orifice and each fuel orifice is of a cross-sectional area to control a transverse heat flux profile of the burner. The burner subunits are spaced with respect to one another to control a longitudinal heat flux profile of the burner. The single air supply and the single fuel supply provide an air-fuel mix that ensures that the transverse heat flux profile and the longitudinal heat flux profile are maintained at different fuel and air input rates.
Each of the plurality of burner subunits may be spaced at variable spacing with respect to one another to control the longitudinal heat flux profile. Alternatively, each of the plurality of burner subunits may be spaced at a constant distance with respect to one another, where each of the subunits have different heat release rates, to control the longitudinal heat flux profile. Alternatively still, each of the plurality of burner subunits may be spaced at either variable spacing or constant spacing with respect to one another to control the longitudinal heat flux profile.
Each of the plurality of burner subunits may have a plurality of air orifices of a desired cross-sectional area where each air orifice is adapted to create a flamelet to control the transverse heat flux profile of the burner.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a burner is provided which also includes a plurality of burner subunits. The burner subunits share a single air/fuel supply and a single control system. Each burner subunit has a plurality of air/fuel orifices where the plurality of air/fuel orifices are of sufficient quantity and each air/fuel orifice is of a cross-sectional area to control a transverse heat flux profile of the burner. The burner units are spaced with respect to one another to control a longitudinal heat flux profile of the burner. The air/fuel supply provides an air-fuel mix that ensures that the transverse heat flux profile and the longitudinal heat flux profile are maintained at different fuel and air input rates.
Each of the plurality of burner subunits may be spaced at variable spacing with respect to one another to control the longitudinal heat flux profile. Alternatively, each of the plurality of burner subunits may be spaced at a constant distance with respect to one another, where each of the subunits have different heat release rates, to control the longitudinal heat flux profile. Alternatively still, each of the plurality of burner subunits may be spaced at either at variable spacing or constant spacing with respect to one another to control the longitudinal heat flux profile. Each of the plurality of burner subunits may have a plurality of air/fuel orifices of a desired cross-sectional area where each air/fuel orifice creates a flamelet to control the transverse heat flux profile of the burner.
The present invention is directed to a novel burner design for a furnace whereby specified heat flux profiles in two dimensions (e.g., along a burner longitudinal axis and along a burner transverse axis) are achieved simultaneously. A furnace to which the present invention is applied has one or more burner assemblies. Each burner assembly consists of a number of burner subunits that share the same air supply, fuel supply and control system. The number and size of air and fuel orifices in each burner subunit control the transverse profile of the flame within the burner, the spacing among the burner units controls the longitudinal profile of the flame within the burner, and a special air-fuel mixing approach ensures that the heat flux profiles maintain the same shape at different fuel and air input rates.
For purposes of the present invention, the term “longitudinal” refers to the longitudinal axis of the burner and the term “transverse” refers to axes perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the burner.
To achieve the objectives of this invention, three principles are used together to create a novel design apparatus.
First, the heat flux profile requirement for the particular furnace is reduced into solvable sub-problems by physical subdivision. The required heat release is provided in the form of fuel to meet the targeted heat transfer requirement in each subdivision. This principle is applied to the longitudinal heat flux profile (i.e., a heat flux profile with respect to the longitudinal axis of the burner), which is achieved through the use of a plurality of subunits within the burner assembly. These subunits may be: (1) subunits having the same heat release rate and placed at a variable spacing, (2) subunits having different heat release rates and placed at a fixed spacing, or (3) a combination of (1) and (2) above. This principle can also be applied at the level of each subunit so that a plurality of flamelets, each responsible for a prescribed target area of heat transfer, collectively achieves a desired transverse heat flux profile at each elevation.
Second, it is known that the length of a turbulent flame is directly proportional to its nozzle (orifice) diameter. See, for example, J. M. Beer and N. A. Chigier, Combustion Aerodynamics, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1972 at page 40. See also H. Tennekes and J. L. Lumley, A First Course in Turbulence, The MIT Press, 1990 at page 22. This principle is used to control the length of the flamelets within each subunit of the burner assembly so that the desired amount of energy is delivered to the target location at a given distance away from the subunit. Accordingly, more orifices of smaller diameters will produce a shorter flamelet. Conversely, fewer orifices of larger diameters will produce a longer flamelet. This principle is directed to the transverse heat flux profile of the furnace (i.e., the heat flux profile of the furnace of a plane that is perpendicular to the longitudinal heat flux profile of the furnace).
Third, proper air-fuel ratios are maintained and air staging is used to control flame temperature. Although a premixed design may offer certain performance benefits, safety requirements may favor a non-premixed approach. Whether premixed or non-premixed, proper air-fuel mixing is critical to achieving flame shape and heat flux profiles. Furthermore, in a non-premixed design, not only must the overall fuel-ratio be correct, ratios within each subdivision must also be carefully controlled so that the primary stage, secondary stage, etc., all have proper stoichiometries. In addition, the intersection points of fuel and air jets must be properly controlled.
The objective of low capital cost is achieved by consolidating the flow manifolds and burner controls. Regardless of the number of subunits in the assembly of the present invention, there is only one air control valve and one fuel control valve. The proper distribution of air and fuel is achieved by appropriately sizing air ducts and fuel pipes.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like part numbers refer to like elements throughout the several views, there is shown in
The steam reforming process is a well known chemical process for hydrocarbon reforming. Typically, a hydrocarbon and steam mixture (a mixed feed) reacts in the presence of a catalyst to form hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Since the reforming reaction is strongly endothermic, heat must be supplied to the reactant mixture, such as by heating the tubes in a furnace or reformer. The amount of reforming achieved depends on the temperature of the gas leaving the catalyst. Exit temperatures of 700 to 900 degrees Celsius are typical for hydrocarbon reforming.
As can be seen in
The cylindrical reformer 10 requires burner subunits 14 that produce a specified heat flux along each reformer tube 22 (i.e., a longitudinal heat flux profile), and, at any given elevation of the reformer tube 22, the heat flux profile must be uniform among a number of tubes 22 (i.e., the transverse profile).
As can be seen in
These two heat flux profile requirements limit the flame of each subunit 14 to a fan shape 38 (see FIG. 3). The burner subunits 14 must operate for a range of fuels and air preheat temperatures.
As seen in
In this example reformer 10, there are six pie-shaped sectors 24 and seven reformer tubes 22 along each radial row 30 of reformer tubes 22 that divide the sectors 24.
Based on the geometry indicated in the preceding paragraph, and the fact that flow rate is proportional to orifice cross-sectional area, the following relationships are derived from the design principles disclosed here:
where n is number of orifices in each angle (e.g., the 30 degree angle, the 50 degree angle, the 70 degree angle, etc.), d is orifice diameter (see FIG. 4), and L is length from the burner subunit to the tube row 30 in each angle (See FIG. 3). In this example, the first angle is at 30 degrees (subscript 1), the second angle is at 50 degrees (subscript 2), and so forth. Description of only four angles is needed for a complete description of the system because of symmetry. To control the lengths of the flamelets 26 for associated heat transfer target areas 32, the air orifice arrangement 34 (see
To ensure flame stability and to achieve a desired flame shape, the third principle above, i.e., proper air-fuel ratios, must be applied in arranging the air orifices. Industry guidelines on the ratio of primary air to total air is usually between 40 to 60%, but the ratio could be as low as about 25%, or as high as about 75%. As
The desired longitudinal heat flux profile can be achieved by arranging the burner subunits 14 in a manner similar to that of
Prototype Test Data
One burner assembly consisting of six subunits was constructed and tested in a vertical cylindrical furnace. At each subunit elevation, five heat flux samples were taken.
It is clear to those skilled in the art that if the number of heat transfer targets and/or the furnace geometry is different, the same design approach can be used to come up with a design that will achieve the same objective.
As long as the heat flux profiles required by the process are known, this design approach can be used to design a burner assembly to meet those requirements. As a result, this invention can have applications far beyond the embodiment described herein.
Separately, the three principles of burner design discussed herein are known. It is the application of the combination of these principles that is novel. The net outcome is a low-cost burner assembly that satisfies heat flux profile requirements in two orthogonal dimensions simultaneously. Such a burner has wide applicability in different industries, such as hydrogen reformers, ethylene crackers, process heaters, utility boilers, and the like. The key to low cost is the consolidation of flow distribution and burner control.
Although illustrated and described herein with reference to specific embodiments, the present invention nevertheless is not intended to be limited to the details shown. Rather, various modifications may be made in the details within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.
This application is a contribution of Ser. No. 10/093,566 filed Mar. 7, 2002 now abn.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20040209208 A1 | Oct 2004 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10093566 | Mar 2002 | US |
Child | 10842083 | US |