Stability characteristics and emission levels of a laboratory hot water heater utilizing a weak-swirl burner

Conference · Sun Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:199209

Yegian, D T; Cheng, Robert K

This paper reports the test results of a collaboration between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Teledyne Laars to assess the viability of incorporating the Weak-Swirl Burner (WSB) into a 15 kW Telstar spa heater. By stabilizing premixed lean combustion down to equivalence ratios {phi} {approx} 0.6, the WSB greatly reduces NO{sub x} levels by minimizing thermally generated NO{sub x} through the Zeldovich mechanism. The first set of experiments focus on establishing the WSB`s minimum and maximum swirl requirement) for varying {phi}, power levels, burner size, and enclosure. The second set of experiments evaluates the performance of a laboratory water heater where the WSB is incorporated into a Telstar heat exchanger. It was found that the laboratory test station achieves ``low`` and ``ultra-low`` NO{sub x} emissions without compromising the thermal efficiency. The optimum operating condition is for {phi} = 0.8 at 18 kW where NO{sub x} < 25 ppM and CO < 50 ppM. The results will be used as design guideline for using the low emission WSB in a prototype.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 199209
• Report Number(s): LBL--37820; CONF-9510294--1; ON: DE96004724
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
EMISSION
NATURAL GAS
WATER HEATERS