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Show increases for oil occurred and supply interruptions were experienced. Today, these historical reasons remain, and in addition, there is the pricing incentive provided by interruptible gas supplies. The year round price of natural gas is lower for customers who operate their boilers with dual fuel burners. Switching to oil the instant the gas supplier demands it, benefits the gas pipeline operator w h o has potential capacity shortfalls in severe cold weather, as well as the boiler operator. The boiler operator fulfills the business requirement for steam at less cost, and the gas supplier satisfies all non-interruptible customers with the peak gas flows during the coldest days of the year, while continuing to utilize the sunk capital costs in the pipeline to carry more gas in mild weather. Figure 4. Z E R O F B N , 325°C C O M B U S T I O N AIR Installing gas only burners, which usually yield lower N O x than gas and oil dual fuel burners, will increase steam and end product costs due to higher gas prices charged year round to non-interruptible customers. In addition, greater pipeline capacity will be required to handle the exacerbated seasonal demand peaks further increasing fuel prices. Advanced technology dual fuel burners will be evolved by those who perceive the market advantage they gain, provided the low emissions risk is reasonably managed and their business remains sufficiently profitable to support the development efforts. Analytical methods for precisely shaped ultra-low emissions flames have been fully validated by the author in extensive, 100 m m Btu/hr full scale burners [6,9]. This work has led to many successful burner installations which have fully realized the benefits of high efficiency, low N O x , low C O , low V O C s and low particulates. These accurate flame fit advantages which carefully exploit the temperature and chemical advantages of low emissions flames are now available, and are now being applied as fully validated technologies. OUTLET OXYGEN VOLUME PERCENT Figure 5. 0.3 %wt FBN, 325°C COMBUSTION AIR The costs of reduced emissions manifests themselves in many ways. Some of them are minor while most are not. The cost to develop a lower emissions technology can be, and usually is, considerable. Assuming the governmental bodies which promulgate the reduced emissions standards do not also make the financial investment to develop and apply the necessary technologies which yield the desired emissions reductions, a healthy business community must be encouraged to make the investment required to do the job. Merely demanding that the burner manufacturer guarantee the lower emissions levels is not sufficient. While the burner is the most important single piece of equipment in achieving these objectives in improved human health, the current state of the burner business is most accurately characterized as a low profit margin commodity. Compounding the paucity of private sector funding, is the standard terms of sale commonly expected of the burner manufacturer by the purchaser of the burners. Guaranteeing lower emissions, and for a broader array of toxic substances, makes the likelihood of failure to comply with every guaranteed pollutant, for every installation, a more frequent occurrence. Imposing economic penalties solely on the burner manufacturer will only further delay progress in the full realization of a cost effective means to healthier air. Non-recurring and conformance liability costs are not the only additional costs of achieving ultra-low emissions. Capital costs for equipment increase. Operation and maintenance costs increase; including operator training, equipment cleaning frequency, consumables, replacement parts, more frequent and more complicated controls adjustments, and more sensitive instrument calibrations. Costs move inversely to emissions. It is important to know that point at which the next increment in added cost is worth the incremental emissions reduction benefit. A healthy technical and industrial community will provide that answer in a more favorable |