Increasing the efficiency of radiant burners by using polymer membranes

Gas-fired radiant burners are used to convert fuel chemical energy into radiation energy for various applications. The radiation output of a radiant burner largely depends on the temperature of the combustion flame. In fact, the radiation output and, thus, the radiant efficiency increase to a great extent with flame temperature. Oxygen-enriched combustion can increase the flame temperature without increasing fuel cost. However, it has not been widely applied because of the high cost of oxygen production. In the present work, oxygen-enriched combustion of natural gas in porous radiant burners was studied. The oxygen-enriched air was produced passively, using polymer membranes. The membranes were shown to be an effective means of obtaining an oxygen-enriched environment for gas combustion in the radiant burners. Two different porous radiant burners were used in this study. One is a reticulated ceramic burner and the other is a ceramic fibre burner. The experimental results showed that the radiation output and the radiant efficiency of these burners increased markedly with rising oxygen concentrations in the combustion air. Also investigated were the effects of oxygen enrichment on combustion mode, and flame stability on the porous media.     

Performance simulation of a low‐swirl burner for a Stirling engine

A new type of gas burner for Stirling engine that can recover adequate heat from exhaust gas was designed based on the plate heat exchanger and low‐swirl combustion technology, which consists of three components: a cyclone, a burner, and a circular plate heat exchanger. The circular plate heat exchanger tightly wound around the combustion chamber plays a high efficiency of heat recovery role. In consideration of the radial symmetry of the burner, a three‐dimensional numerical simulation was carried out by Ansys15. The velocity distribution, temperature distribution, and pressure distribution of the combustion gas were presented respectively. Strong backflow that came from the exhaust gas around the root of the flame in the combustion chamber and a vortex below the inlet of the exhaust gas channel were found, which were beneficial for the combustion and improving the uniformity of temperature distribution. Combustion behaviors of the burner under standard operating conditions were obtained, the highest temperature was about 2200 K in burner and the exhaust gas entered the plate heat exchanger at the temperature of 1375 K and exited at 464 K, with the waste heat recovery efficiency over 65.8%. And, the air‐fuel ratio and combustion power had negligible effect on the waste heat recovery efficiency.     

Experimental investigation on heat recovery from diesel engine exhaust using finned shell and tube heat exchanger and thermal storage system

The exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine carries away about 30% of the heat of combustion. The energy available in the exit stream of many energy conversion devices goes as waste, if not utilized properly. The major technical constraint that prevents successful implementation of waste heat recovery is due to its intermittent and time mismatched demand and availability of energy. In the present work, a shell and finned tube heat exchanger integrated with an IC engine setup to extract heat from the exhaust gas and a thermal energy storage tank used to store the excess energy available is investigated in detail. A combined sensible and latent heat storage system is designed, fabricated and tested for thermal energy storage using cylindrical phase change material (PCM) capsules. The performance of the engine with and without heat exchanger is evaluated. It is found that nearly 10–15% of fuel power is stored as heat in the combined storage system, which is available at reasonably higher temperature for suitable application. The performance parameters pertaining to the heat exchanger and the storage tank such as amount of heat recovered, heat lost, charging rate, charging efficiency and percentage energy saved are evaluated and reported in this paper.     

Modelling and analyses of heat exchangers in a biomass boiler plant

A boiler plant is presented, in which the fuel is dried before combustion in a silo with air. The drying air is heated in a recuperative heat exchanger by the heat of flue gases. Hot air is then blown through the bed of fuel in the drying silo, while the fuel dries and the air cools down and becomes humidified. Heat of the moist exhaust air of the silo is recovered for the drying air and combustion air by a recuperative heat exchanger. Modelling of the thermal behaviour of the plant helps in understanding complex interdependencies of the two heat exchangers, the boiler and the dryer. The models of the heat exchangers and applications in analysing the boiler system are described in this paper. Calculating the combinations of extreme operational conditions gives the input data needed in comparing different types of heat exchangers, dimensioning the heat transfer area, choosing the control strategy and selecting the operating parameters and set‐values of the control system. Results of verification measurements and practical operation at a 40 kW_th pilot plant and a 500 kW_th demonstration plant are also discussed. Using engineering correlation formulas for heat and mass transfer, an adequate accuracy between the model and the measurements was achieved. Fouling was detected to be a major problem with the flue gas heat exchanger. However, in absence of condensation, the increase of a fouling layer with respect to time was observed to be low. Fouling was also a problem with the drying exhaust gas heat exchanger, but after the installation of a simple dust collector, a reasonable cleaning period was achieved. A mixed‐flow configuration was found to be the most appropriate for the flue gas heat exchanger. In order to avoid condensation of the flue gas the drying exhaust gas heat exchanger is indispensable in Finnish climate in the considered system. In addition to this, it decreases the need of fuel. A parallel‐flow type was found the most appropriate as the drying exhaust gas heat exchanger. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

车用液化天然气加热器性能的试验研究

对天然气加热器进行了台架试验。因气态燃料极易与空气混合燃烧,故不易在热交换器内壁产生积炭和烟灰,其热效率比燃油加热器高10%以上。为了消除高温燃气因流动短路而造成的热损失,尝试了在热交换器肋片出口端面增加燃气均流环并进行了试验。另外,为了削弱热辐射及传导所造成的热能流短路损失,还做了在燃烧室外加装遮热筒试验,其试验效果显著。     

Experimental study on titanium heat exchanger used in a gas fired water heater for latent heat recovery

In general, latent heat recovery is usually accompanied by the corrosion of the heat exchanger, which is caused by the strongly acidic condensate when the temperature of the flue gas is lowered below the acid dew point. The present study has been conducted to investigate the heat and mass transfer characteristics in a titanium heat exchanger with excellent corrosion resistance used for waste heat recovery with the condensation arranged in a gas fired water heater. In addition, the thermal efficiency of the gas fired water heater was evaluated based on the net calorific value at the maximum rated output during latent heat recovery from the exhaust flue gas. Parametric studies were conducted for the flue gas flow rate, inlet temperature and mass flow rate of the supplied water, respectively. Different arrangements of the tubes of the heat exchanger including in-line and staggered configurations were investigated. The experimental results indicate that the thermal efficiency of the gas fired water heater with a latent heat recovery (LHR) heat exchanger was enhanced by about 10% compared with conventional instantaneous water heaters, i.e., water heaters without heat recovery. In addition, in terms of the Nusselt number and the Sherwood number, the heat and mass transfer performance of the staggered tube bank type were approximately 50% and 10% higher than that on the in-line tube bank type when the Reynolds number of the flue gas was 10³.     

椭圆扭曲管内数值模拟及其在热风炉空气预热器的节能应用

热风炉空气预热器是纳米碳酸钙生产过程中重要的节能设备,可以降低排烟温度,提高能源利用率。目前广泛采用的光滑圆管空气预热器体积庞大,换热效率低,造成排烟温度高,不仅污染环境,而且浪费大量的热量。为了解决这一问题,将椭圆扭曲管应用于热风炉空气预热器。结果显示,以椭圆扭曲管为换热元件的椭圆扭曲管空气预热器体积小、耗用钢材少、换热效率高,提高了烟气余热利用效率,降低燃料消耗量。以空气为工质,分别对椭圆扭曲管和圆管进行数值模拟,对比分析其传热性能。结果表明,相对于圆管,空气在椭圆扭曲管内湍动性更强,换热效果更好。通过对实际的工程案例进行分析,将椭圆扭曲管应用于热风炉空气预热器可减少换热面积27.9%,缩小体积37%,具有良好的节能节材效果。     

Exergy analysis of the woody biomass Stirling engine and PEM-FC combined system with exhaust heat reforming

The woody biomass Stirling engine (WB-SEG) is an external combustion engine that outputs high-temperature exhaust gases. It is necessary to improve the exergy efficiency of WB-SEG from the viewpoint of energy cascade utilization. So, a combined system that uses the exhaust heat of WB-SEG for the steam reforming of city gas and that supplies the produced reformed gas to a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM-FC) is proposed. The energy flow and the exergy flow were analyzed for each WB-SEG, PEM-FC, and WB-SEG/PEM-FC combined system. Exhaust heat recovery to preheat fuel and combustion air was investigated in each system. As a result, (a) improvement of the heat exchange performance of the woody biomass combustion gas and engine is observed, (b) reduction in difference in the reaction temperature of each unit, and (c) removal of rapid temperature change of reformed gas are required in order to reduce exergy loss of the system. The exergy efficiency of the WB-SEG/PEM-FC combined system is superior to EM-FC.     

Integration of a molten carbonate fuel cell with a direct exhaust absorption chiller

A high market value exists for an integrated high-temperature fuel cell-absorption chiller product throughout the world. While high-temperature, molten carbonate fuel cells are being commercially deployed with combined heat and power (CHP) and absorption chillers are being commercially deployed with heat engines, the energy efficiency and environmental attributes of an integrated high-temperature fuel cell-absorption chiller product are singularly attractive for the emerging distributed generation (DG) combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) market. This study addresses the potential of cooling production by recovering and porting the thermal energy from the exhaust gas of a high-temperature fuel cell (HTFC) to a thermally activated absorption chiller. To assess the practical opportunity of serving an early DG-CCHP market, a commercially available direct fired double-effect absorption chiller is selected that closely matches the exhaust flow and temperature of a commercially available HTFC. Both components are individually modeled, and the models are then coupled to evaluate the potential of a DG-CCHP system. Simulation results show that a commercial molten carbonate fuel cell generating 300 kW of electricity can be effectively coupled with a commercial 40 refrigeration ton (RT) absorption chiller. While the match between the two “off the shelf” units is close and the simulation results are encouraging, the match is not ideal. In particular, the fuel cell exhaust gas temperature is higher than the inlet temperature specified for the chiller and the exhaust flow rate is not sufficient to achieve the potential heat recovery within the chiller heat exchanger. To address these challenges, the study evaluates two strategies: (1) blending the fuel cell exhaust gas with ambient air, and (2) mixing the fuel cell exhaust gases with a fraction of the chiller exhaust gas. Both cases are shown to be viable and result in a temperature drop and flow rate increase of the gases before the chiller inlet. The results show that no risk of cold end corrosion within the chiller heat exchanger exists. In addition, crystallization is not an issue during system operation. Accounting for the electricity and the cooling produced and disregarding the remaining thermal energy, the second strategy is preferred and yields an overall estimated efficiency of 71.7%.     

CFD modeling of a radiant tube heater

This paper reports experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) studies on combustion and radiation heat transfer from a real radiant tube heater. The temperature along the radiant tube as well as at different positions in a test room has been measured. A good agreement between the experimental and predicted results has been found. Based on this validation, the effect of excess air, presented by Air Factor (AF) on efficiency of heater has been studied, theoretically. Moreover, the effect of inlet air preheating on heater efficiency has been examined. The results show that the higher values of excess air can reduce the heater efficiency. The air preheating temperature caused positive effect on heater efficiency. In addition, the results show at higher preheating temperature the effect of AF value on heater efficiency is negligible.     

提高炼油厂加热炉热效率的方法

加热炉的能耗问题是炼油厂中非常关键的问题。文章全面系统地介绍了提高加热炉热效率的方法：降低过剩空气系数；预热燃烧用空气和燃料气；利用对流室增加吸收热量；设计高效燃烧器；设置有效的吹灰器；减小加热炉漏风量；以及使用高温辐射涂层等。并且提出了提高加热炉热效率的新方法，即采用计算流体动力学(CFD)方法对加热炉内所发生的各过程进行数值模拟，在此基础上进行数值实验，最终确定最有效的提高加热炉热效率的方法。     

Thermal performance of a meso-scale liquid-fuel combustor

Combustion in small scale devices poses significant challenges due to the quenching of reactions from wall heat losses as well as the significantly reduced time available for mixing and combustion. In the case of liquid fuels there are additional challenges related to atomization, vaporization and mixing with the oxidant in the very short time-scale liquid-fuel combustor. The liquid fuel employed here is methanol with air as the oxidizer. The combustor was designed based on the heat recirculating concept wherein the incoming reactants are preheated by the combustion products through heat exchange occurring via combustor walls. The combustor was fabricated from Zirconium phosphate, a ceramic with very low thermal conductivity (0.8 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹). The combustor had rectangular shaped double spiral geometry with combustion chamber in the center of the spiral formed by inlet and exhaust channels. Methanol and air were introduced immediately upstream at inlet of the combustor. The preheated walls of the inlet channel also act as a pre-vaporizer for liquid fuel which vaporizes the liquid fuel and then mixes with air prior to the fuel–air mixture reaching the combustion chamber. Rapid pre-vaporization of the liquid fuel by the hot narrow channel walls eliminated the necessity for a fuel atomizer. Self-sustained combustion of methanol–air was achieved in a chamber volume as small as 32.6 mm³. The results showed stable combustion under fuel-rich conditions. High reactant preheat temperatures (675 K–825 K) were obtained; however, the product temperatures measured at the exhaust were on the lower side (475 K–615 K). The estimated combustor heat load was in the range 50 W–280 W and maximum power density of about 8.5 GW/m³. This is very high when compared to macro-scale combustors. Overall energy efficiency of the combustor was estimated to be in the range of 12–20%. This suggests further scope of improvements in fuel–air mixing and mixture preparation.     

Heat recirculating reactors: Fundamental research and applications

Worldwide emphasis on fuel efficiency, low emissions, and use of low-quality fuels such as biogas continues to drive the development of combustors that operate over a wider range of fuel/air ratios and with higher burning velocities than their conventional counterparts. Enhancement of reaction rates is required to increase burning velocities and widen fuel/air operating ranges over values achievable in conventional combustors, and extensive research over the last few decades has shown that transferring heat in a reactor from hot combustion products to incoming reactants can accomplish this enhancement without external energy addition. These reactors, called heat recirculating reactors, use various geometries and flow strategies to optimize the heat transfer. In this paper, research on heat recirculating reactors is reviewed with an emphasis on the most important designs and applications. The basic characteristics of a heat recirculating reactor are encompassed in a simple configuration: a flame stabilized in a tube with high thermal conductivity. More complex designs that have evolved to further optimize heat transfer and recirculation are then described, including porous reactors with or without flame stabilization and channel reactors consisting of parallel tubes or slots. Advanced designs introduce additional means of heat transfer, such as transverse heat transfer from hot products through channel walls to incoming reactants, thereby leading to the counter-flow channel reactor. The flexibility of heat recirculating reactors to operate on a variety of fuels and over wide operating ranges has led to many applications including fuel reformers, radiant heaters and thermal oxidizers, and important work on these applications is reviewed. Finally, future research directions are discussed.     

带有小螺旋角的内外螺旋翅片管高压加热器的工业试验

工业现场试验的结果表明,带有小螺旋角的内外螺旋翅片管（简称内外螺旋翅片管或ＩＯＳＦ管）用于电站高压加热器有着显著的传热强化效果,其实测总传热系数是光滑管加热器的１．４３倍,可相应节省换热面积３０％。在等面积下使用,则可收到明显的节能效果。     

Latest concepts for combustion and waste heat recovery systems being considered for hydrogen engines

A more sustainable transportation calls for the use of alternative and renewable fuels, a further increase of the fuel energy conversion efficiency of internal combustion engines as well as the reduction of the thermal engine energy supply by recovering the braking energy. The paper presents two concepts being developed to improve the fuel conversion efficiency of internal combustion engines for transport applications. The first concept works on the combustion evolution to increase the amount of fuel energy transformed in piston work within the cylinder. The second concept works on the waste exhaust and coolant energies to be recovered through a power turbine downstream of the turbocharger turbine on the exhaust line and a steam turbine feed with the steam produced by a boiler/super heater made of the coolant passages and a heat exchanger on the exhaust line. The concepts work with hydrogen (and in this case a water injector is also necessary) as well as lower alkanes (methane, propane, butane). Preliminary simulations show improvement of top fuel conversion efficiencies to above 50% in the high power density operation. The waste heat recovery system also permits faster warm-up during cold start driving cycles.     

Assessment of natural gas/hydrogen blends as an alternative fuel for industrial heat treatment furnaces

The present study investigates the application of natural gas/hydrogen blends as an alternative fuel for industrial heat treatment furnaces and their economic potential for decreasing carbon dioxide emissions in this field of application. Doing so, a detailed technological analysis of several influencing parameters on the heating system was performed as well as a consideration of furnace heating technology challenges. Starting with an evaluation of the main thermophysical properties of the blends and their corresponding flue gases, requirements for the heating systems were identified. Potential ways of decreasing flue gas losses and increasing the heat transfer are shown. In the radiant tube application, an increased overall combustion efficiency of about 1.2% was measured at 40 vol% hydrogen in the fuel gas. Influences on the air to gas ratio control system of the furnace is a further important point, which was considered in this study. Two commonly used control systems were evaluated concerning their capabilities to regulate the gas flow rates of blends with varying hydrogen contents and combustion properties, such as Wobbe Index. This is important, since it shows the capability to retrofit existing furnaces. Two types of burners were tested with different natural gas/hydrogen blends. This includes an open jet burner with air-staged and flameless combustion operation modes. A recuperative burner for radiant tube application was considered as well in these tests. Doing so, the nitrogen oxide formation of both systems under different operating conditions and different fuel blends were evaluated. An increase by about 10% at air-staged combustion and about 100% at flameless combustion was measured by a hydrogen content of 40 vol% in comparison to pure natural gas firing. Finally, the additional fuel costs of natural gas hydrogen blends and different cases are presented in an economic analysis. The driving force for the use of hydrogen as a fuel is the price of the CO2 certificates, which are considered in the analysis at a current price of 25.2 €/t CO2.     

Novel predictive tools for design of radiant and convective sections of direct fired heaters

Direct fired heaters are used considerably in the energy related industries and petroleum industries for heating crude oil in the petroleum refining and petrochemical sectors. The aim of the current study is to formulate simple-to-use correlations to design the radiant and convective sections of direct fired heaters. The developed tools are easier than currently available models and involves a fewer number of parameters, requiring less complicated and shorter computations. Firstly, a simple correlation is developed to provide an accurate and rapid prediction of the absorbed heat in the radiant section of a fired heater, expressed as a fraction of the total net heat liberation, in terms of the average heat flux to the tubes, the arrangement of the tubes (circumferential), and the air to fuel mass ratio. Secondly, another simple correlation is developed to approximate external heat transfer coefficients for 75, 100, and 150 mm nominal pipe size (NPS) steel pipes arranged in staggered rows and surrounded by combustion gases. Finally, a simple correlation is presented to predict the gross thermal efficiency as a function of percent excess air and stack gas temperature. This study shows that the proposed method has a good agreement with the available reliable data in the literature. The average absolute deviations between reported data and the proposed correlations are found to be around 1.5% demonstrating the excellent performance of proposed predictive tool. The proposed simple-to-use method can be of significant practical value for the engineers and scientists to have a quick check on the design of radiant and convective sections of direct fired heater. In particular, mechanical and process engineers would find the proposed approach to be user-friendly involving no complex expressions with transparent and easy to understand calculations.     

Comparisons of MHD topping combined power generation systems

The efficiencies of six MHD topping combined power generation systems and one gas turbine topping combined system driven by different combinations of fuel and oxidant supply schematics were compared and classified on the bases of overall chemical reaction models for the combustion and gasification processes. The primary fuel was carbon that modeled a coal. The fuel types considered were coal and coal-synthesized gases which were provided by either conventional top gasification or by the tail gasification process. The oxidant was either pure oxygen, oxygen enriched air or air. In the MHD topping cases, the oxidant was preheated to each appropriate temperature. The enthalpy extraction of the corresponding power generation units in the topping and bottoming systems and the temperatures at the inlets of regenerators as well as at the stacks were assumed to be identical in all cases, except the inlet temperatures at the recuperative air heaters and the steam generators. We showed that the tail gasification system with an MHD topping and a combined gas turbine and steam turbine bottoming exhibited the highest plant efficiency insofar as it was based on the state-of-the-art technology of the power generation units and the heat exchanger.     

Electricity,hot water and cold water production from biomass. Energetic and economical analysis of the compact system of cogeneration run with woodgas from a small downdraft gasifier

Wood gasification technologies to convert the biomass into fuel gas stand out. On the other hand, producing electrical energy from stationary engine is widely spread, and its application in rural communities where the electrical network doesn’t exist is very required. The recovery of exhaust gases (engine) is a possibility that makes the system attractive when compared with the same components used to obtain individual heat such as electric power. This paper presents an energetic alternative to adapt a fixed bed gasifier with a compact cogeneration system in order to cover electrical and thermal demands in a rural area and showing an energy solution for small social communities using renewable fuels. Therefore, an energetic and economical analysis from a cogeneration system producing electric energy, hot and cold water, using wooden gas as fuel from a small-sized gasifier was calculated. The energy balance that includes the energy efficiency (electric generation as well as hot and cold water system; performance coefficient and the heat exchanger, among other items), was calculated. Considering the annual interest rates and the amortization periods, the costs of production of electrical energy, hot and cold water were calculated, taking into account the investment, the operation and the maintenance cost of the equipments.     

Flame stabilization and emission of small Swiss-roll combustors as heaters

The characteristics of small Swiss-roll combustors were investigated experimentally in detail. Three types of Swiss-roll combustors of different designs and two cases of heat transfer conditions were studied. The effects of design parameters on the performance of these combustors were examined. Each combustor consisted of a combustion region at the center (called the combustion room) and double spiral-shaped channels, the widths of which were smaller than the minimum quenching distance of a propane premixed flame at a normal state. Flames could be stabilized successfully for a wide range of equivalence ratios and mean velocities by using the recirculated heat from the burned gas, and blow-off was not observed. Temperature distributions of the combustors, variation of gas temperature, and the concentrations of the exhaust gas from the combustors were also investigated. Mean temperatures of the combustors were found to be governed by both the radiant heat loss from the combustors and the total chemical energy liberated by the combustors. Efficiencies of the combustors as heaters were evaluated. As a combustor became smaller, its thermal efficiency as a heater increased and its NO_x emission decreased, while the emission of CO increased. By adding a catalytic reactor at the exhaust port, it was found that the emission of CO could be eliminated. This study provides new experimental results for a small Swiss-roll combustor, which represents an essential step toward the development of a microcombustor.