Combustion R&D Needs in the Petroleum Refining Industry

Fuel consumption dominates the annual operating cost of today's refinery and the petroleum industry alone accounts for 60 percent of the fuel used in industrial furnaces and boilers. Economic and environmental pressures are forcing greater emphasis on the traditional gaseous fuels and fuel use in the petroleum industry is not going to change much in the foreseeable future. Rather, the trend will be toward better utilization of the traditional gaseous fuels. We need to know how to burn today's fuels "better" -- with greater efficiency and less pollution. We will discuss combustion R&D needs in low NOx burners, "ultra" low NOx burners, stack waste heat recovery, combustion aerodynamics, low Btu gas and waste incineration.