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Show variation among industries and are used for heating glass, metals, petroleum, chemicals, etc. Although furnaces can be generally characterized as high and low temperature, there is still significant variation among industrial uses. Burners and combustion in general may be best addressed as a component of both boilers and furnaces. This will assure a direct link between heat source and the heat sink application. The combustion vision and technology roadmap will involve all the relevant stakeholders that will influence or be affected by advances in industrial combustion technology. Identification and participation of stakeholders m a y be best addressed by including various groups at different stages in the vision/roadmap development and review process. This is the same general approach which has been used with success by four of the Industries of the Future. This approach is illustrated in Exhibit 3. The current approach is to select a small core group of experts made up of combustion equipment manufacturers and users to develop the vision statement. Separate vision statements are appropriate for burners/combustion, boilers and furnaces and this will require that at least two separate core groups be established, one for boilers and one for furnaces. Since combustion and burners are integral to the operation of boilers and furnaces, a vision of combustion and burners is expected to be derived from elements of these two vision segments. The core group will describe the characteristics of combustion, burners, boilers and furnaces in a future time period. For commonality with the other visions, the year 2020 will be used. One question that the group can be expected to consider is the need for a pollution free burner. Numerous publications have noted that emission requirements are driving pollutant levels lower and lower, leading many to suspect that an ultimate goal of regulators is a combustion process which does not create any criteria pollutants. Does this describe the burner of the future? Also, with concerns of global warming raised by some politicians and some of the public, the group is also expected to consider whether the future requires improved heat transfer from burner to furnace and boiler, for a gain in overall efficiency. Additionally, will a combustion system which emits no carbon dioxide be required? Also likely to be considered is the need for an advanced, low cost cogeneration system consisting of a boiler and a steam turbine. S o m e elements of such a system already exist. Questions to be answered are how such a system would be used by industry, its productivity benefit to industry and how its cost can be m a d e competitive in a deregulated electric utility environment. Once the vision is established, a larger group of roughly 25 to 40 technologists drawn from users, manufacturers, the research community, and industry associations will develop technology roadmaps. A one- or two-day workshop has proven to be the most effective and fastest route to generate a consensus on research priorities. Accordingly, a single, facilitated workshop will be used to develop separate technology roadmaps for boilers, furnaces, and burners. The results from the workshop will be distributed for comment and input to a larger group that will include sector-specific users, a broad crccc section of the 4 |
