Patent Application
20110315092
The present invention relates to a boiler dual fuel burner assembly.
The invention particularly relates to a boiler dual fuel burner assembly of the type comprising a granular fuel burner, a fluid fuel burner and an air supply duct and associated fan for feeding a granular fuel burner and associated granular fuel brazier and the fluid fuel burner. Such boilers are generally enclosed water heating boilers comprising walls forming a combustion chamber enclosure, hollow heat exchangers arranged for carrying water to be heated, usually provided by at least portion of the walls of the combustion chamber which are hollow water-containing walls. Generally, there is a granular fuel burner and associated granular fuel brazier. The burner is usually some form of electrode but many other types of burner may be used. Generally, they are used to heat the air which then causes the granular fuel to ignite. The fluid fuel burner is, for example, a conventional gas or oil fired burner.
In this specification, the term “granular fuel” is used to include not only granular fuel such as wood pellet formed from wood sawdust, but also other solid materials such as ground or semi-shredded husks of maize and similar products, together with particles of combustible waste material and other recognised fuels such as coal, peat and similar materials.
As stated above, in many such boiler constructions, the granular fuel is contained on a brazier and an electric element is used to heat the granular fuel. The granular fuel in these boilers is very often wood pellets. After a certain amount of time, the wood, or other granular fuel, spontaneously ignites.
Problems do arise with the braziers, for example, there is described a unique construction of brazier in our co-pending European Patent Application No. 08169363.2, filed on Nov. 18, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by direct reference. There are, however, certain problems with granular fuel, if only the problem of the need to have a sufficient supply of the fuel. Unfortunately, sometimes the fuel gets damaged due to moisture, when it very often becomes unusable, particularly if the granular fuel being used is wood pellets which are essentially compressed sawdust, without any binder, such that when they get wet, they become useless. There is therefore a need for a standby burner assembly for the boiler, which standby burner assembly is fluid fired, whether liquid or gaseous.
Unfortunately, there are problems in providing these standby burner assemblies. Where the fluid fired boiler is mounted at the entrance to the boiler, side-by-side with the brazier the temperature of ignition of the fluid fired burner is such that the brazier tends to get damaged by the hot flame and combustion gases. While obviously one could avoid this problem by mounting the two burners far apart, this is essentially impractical in most constructions of boiler and further, as well as being impractical, causes considerable mounting problems.
It is known to provide dual fuel burner assemblies for boilers comprising a granular fuel burner and a fluid fuel burner, usually an oil fired burner, however, these are used more to provide ignition for the granular fuel than as purely a stand-by fuel assembly. For example, in PCT Publication No. WO 2008\068587 (Ecoflam Bruciatori S.P.A.) there is described such a dual fuel boiler where the fluid fired burner is used to ignite the granular fuel. It is also known to have a similar construction to that of the afore referenced boiler for backup. However, the problem with these dual fuel burner assemblies is that, for example, with an oil burner, the combustion gases are of the order of 1100° C. and 1200° C., which is extremely hot. This unfortunately causes damage to the surrounding metal and particularly to the brazier. Essentially, then the braziers are destroyed if such an assembly is used for providing back-up heat when granular fuel is unavailable.
The present invention is directed towards providing a boiler dual fuel burner which overcomes these problems and which will be such as to be easily fitted into a boiler shell and not one that will cause damage to, for example, the brazier used in the combustion of the granular fuel.
The present invention is characterised in that the fluid fuel burner is movable into an operative position within the combustion chamber in which substantially all of the flame and combustion gases generated by the fluid fuel burner in use are directed away from the brazier. Thus advantageously the brazier is protected and is not damaged by operation of the fluid fuel burner.
In one embodiment of the invention the fluid fuel burner is movable between a retracted stored position and an extended operative position.
In another embodiment of the invention the fluid fuel burner locates at a side of the combustion chamber when in the stored position.
In another embodiment of the invention the fluid fuel burner locates outside the combustion chamber when in the stored position.
In a further embodiment of the invention the fluid fuel burner projects into the combustion chamber when in the operative position.
In another embodiment of the invention the fluid fuel burner extends out over the brazier when in the operative position.
In another embodiment of the invention the fluid fuel burner is slidably movable between the stored position and the operative position.
In another embodiment of the invention an actuator is connected to the fluid fuel burner, said actuator being operable for moving the fluid fuel burner between the stored position and the operative position.
Conveniently the actuator comprises a rack attached to the fluid fuel burner and an associated drive pinion which operably engages the rack and a drive motor driveably connected to the pinion.
In another embodiment of the invention the fluid fuel burner is mounted on a telescopic support for movement between the stored position and the operative position.
In another embodiment of the invention the telescopic support comprises a blast tube slidably mounted within an outer support tube, the blast tube being movable through said outer support tube by means of the actuator which is connected to the blast tube, a fluid fuel burner nozzle being mounted at an outer end of the blast tube.
In another embodiment of the invention the blast tube forms an air duct for delivery of combustion air to the nozzle.
In another embodiment of the invention the blast tube has at least one air inlet opening which communicates with the air supply duct when the blast tube is in an extended operative position corresponding to the operative position of the burner.
In another embodiment of the invention air duct has an outlet communicating with the brazier, a valve mounted at the outlet and being operable to close the outlet when the fluid fuel burner is in the operative position.
In another embodiment of the invention the valve is biased into an open position and is movable against said bias into a closed position by means of a ram.
In another embodiment of the invention the ram is operably connected to the fluid fuel supply for the fluid fuel burner such that pressurisation of the fluid fuel for delivery to the fluid fuel burner operates the ram to close the valve.
In another embodiment the valve is mounted on the blast tube such that the valve is closed when the blast tube is in the extended operative position and the valve is open when the blast tube is in the retracted position.
The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof, given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to the drawings, and initially to
There is further provided a dual fuel burner assembly, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10, comprising a granular fuel burner indicated generally by the reference numeral 11, and a fluid fuel burner, indicated generally by the reference numeral 12, and more clearly illustrated in
A wood pellet supply duct 20 feeds an air chamber 21 which in turn is fed by a fan 22. The air chamber 21 is connected to a brazier 23 through an outlet 24 having an associated valve 24a. The side valve 24a is connected by a con rod 25 and return spring 26 to a hydraulic ram 27 fed by oil through an oil line 28 from a combined motor and oil pump 29. The construction of brazier 23 is described in more detail in our co-pending European Patent Application No. 08169363.2 previously referenced.
The fluid fuel burner, in this embodiment an oil burner 12, comprises an injector nozzle 30 mounted in a blast tube 31. The blast tube 31 includes air supply openings 32 and is in turn mounted in a support tube 33. The support tube 33 further houses a rack 34 and pinion 35 driven by a motor 36. A flexible oil supply line 37 feeds, from the combined motor and oil pump 29, fuel to the injector nozzle 30. The motor 36 is operable to drive the pinion 35 which in turn drives the rack 34 for sliding the blast tube 31 within the support tube 33. Thus, the fluid fuel burner 12 can be moved between a retracted stored position as shown in
The blast tube 31 and associated support tube 33 together form a telescopic support for the fluid fuel burner 12. It will be noted that when the blast tube 31 is in the extended position as shown in
As the oil pump 29 is switched on to supply pressurised fuel to the injector nozzle 30, pressurised oil is delivered through the oil line 28 to the ram 27 which overcomes spring 26 bias to close the valve 24a cutting off air supply to the brazier 23.
Finally, it will be noted that above the brazier 23, there is mounted a canopy 40, which canopy 40 is to make sure the combustion in the brazier 23 is full combustion and that there is not residual carbon monoxide (CO) in the boiler to be subsequently exhausted to atmosphere.
In operation, and referring firstly to
In operation, when it is desired to use the fluid fuel burner, in this case, the oil burner 12, the motor 36 is operated and the blast tube 31 is extended from a retracted stored position within the support tube 33. The air supply openings 32 in the blast tube 31 are exposed and air is delivered from the air chamber 21 through the blast tube 31 to the burner 12 injector nozzle 30. The valve 24a is shut by the hydraulic ram 27 closing the outlet 24 to the brazier 23.
It will be noted that now the combustion flame and gases generated by the injector nozzle 30 are injected into the combustion chamber 4 remote from the brazier 23 and are directed away from the brazier 23.
Referring now to
In this specification, the terms “comprise”, “comprises”, “comprised” and “comprising” and the terms “include”, “includes”, “included” and “including” are deemed totally interchangeable and should be afforded the widest possible interpretation.
The invention is in not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described but may be varied in both construction and detail, within the scope of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| S2008/1023 | Dec 2008 | IE | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2009/067898 | 12/23/2009 | WO | 00 | 9/14/2011 |
