American Flame Research Committee

Process Burner Flames: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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Title Process Burner Flames: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Creator Baukal, C.
Contributor Basquez, D., Pappe, M., McGuire, J., Johnson, B., Weimer, B., Luginbill, R.
Date 2018-09-18
Description Paper from the AFRC 2018 conference titled Process Burner Flames: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Abstract John Zink Hamworthy Combustion field personnel inspect thousands of burners at customer sites each year. Too often those flames are not only bad but sometimes potentially dangerous. There are a number of conditions needed for good flames. Burners should be operating at or near their design conditions which includes the excess air and draft levels, and the design firing rate (fuel pressure) and fuel composition. The combustion air must be properly distributed, the fuel to the burners must be clean, and both the air and fuel must be properly controlled. The burner and its associated equipment (e.g., tile and pilot) must also be properly installed and maintained. There are some visual indicators that should be checked for proper burner operation. These include uniformity (all flames in a given heater should normally look about the same), proper flame color, no leaning between flames or into process tubes, no pronounced hot spots or dark spots on the burner tiles, no irregular flame movement (e.g., no pulsing), and no unusual sounds (e.g., flashback).; Bad flames can lead to increased pollution emissions, reduced thermal efficiency, and unplanned shutdowns. Common reasons for bad flames include improper burner installation, maintenance, and operation. Dirty fuel is particularly problematic as it can cause fuel injectors to plug which can create multiple problems. Ugly flames can be dangerous and need to be corrected as soon as possible as they could lead to significant incidents and unplanned shutdowns. Examples of these irregular flames include flame impingement, huffing or pulsing, and severely lifted flames.; The purpose of this presentation is to discuss proper burner operation and what good flames look like and then to contrast that with lots of examples of improper burner operation including the causes and corrections. This information can be used in the risk-based inspection and performance monitoring processes. Typically, equipment has a function statement (primary/secondary) and performance objectives and ranges. The consequences when the function of the equipment has failed is documented in the earlier processes.
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ARK ark:/87278/s6jb0hfz
Setname uu_afrc
ID 1389187
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6jb0hfz