Scaling the weak-swirl burner from 15 kW to 1 MW
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States). Environmental Energy Technologies Div.
- Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). UCI Combustion Lab.
With the passage of SCAQMD 1146.2, low NO{sub x} regulations will be enforced for new water heaters and boilers from 22 to 585 kW starting January 1, 2000; less than two years away. This has given an added impetus to develop a burner capable of producing NO{sub x} < 30 ppm and CO < 400 ppm without substantial manufacturing costs or complexity. Developed at the Berkeley Lab, the Weak-Swirl Burner (WSB) operates in the lean premixed combustion mode over a wide firing and equivalence ratio range. This work investigated scaling issues (e.g. swirl rates and stability limits) of the WSB when fired at higher rates useful to industry. Three test configurations which varied the ratio of furnace area to burner area were utilized to understand the effects of burner chamber coupling on emissions and stability. Preliminary tests from 12 to 18 kW of a WSB in a commercial heat exchanger were undertaken at LBNL, with further testing from 18 to 105 kW completed at UCI Combustion Laboratory in an octagonal enclosure. After scaling the small (5 cm diameter) to a 10 cm WSB, the larger burner was fired from 150 to 600 kW within a 1.2 MW furnace simulator at UCICL. Test results demonstrate that NO{sub x} emissions (15 ppm at 3% O{sub 2} at equivalence ratio {phi} = 0.80) were invariant with firing rate and chamber/burner ratio. However, the data indicates that CO and UHC are dependent on system parameters, such that a minimum firing rate exists below which CO and UHC rise from lower limits of 25 ppm and 0 ppm respectively.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., Environmental Energy Technologies Div., Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- California Inst. for Energy Efficiency, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 674939
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-41559; CONF-9803101-; ON: DE98058252; TRN: AHC29820%%403
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Western States Section/the Combustion Institute 1998 spring meeting, Berkeley, CA (United States), 23-24 Mar 1998; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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