OCR Text |
Show The Challenge of Clean Air Requirements Existing major industrial combustion sources in ozone nonattainment areas designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will most likely be required to install low-NOx retrofit equipment to reduce emissions by May 1995 under Title I of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. For any new combustion sources, requirements will be even more stringent, including use of the technically most effective means of N O x reduction without regard to cost. Operators would also be required to cut emissions from existing sources to offset the new emissions. State governments are required to form implementation plans and establish specific compliance standards. Natural gas is a clean-buming fuel, but many traditional combustion systems were not designed for low-NOx emissions. While many burner manufacturers have started to introduce low-NOx burners, even more advanced technology will be needed to meet increasingly stringent requirements. The next generation of low-NOx natural gas burners must be both efficient and cost-effective in order for gas to maintain its place as a preferred industrial fuel. Gas Research Institute (GRI) is dedicated to finding practical solutions to meet this challenge. Several low-NOx burners developed cooperatively by GRI, burner manufacturers, and the gas industry are already available, and others are timed to meet future market needs. In the following pages, new natural gas burner technologies are described that can reduce N O x without loss of productivity, performance, or overall cost-effectiveness. Steam Generation and Process Fluid Heating Process steam boilers consume about a third of the natural gas used in industrial applications. However, such boilers account for a large percentage of all industrial N O x emissions and are the target of many environmental regulations. California's South Coast Air Quality Management District has put in place the most stringent rules, limiting N O x emissions from existing gas-fired boilers to 30 parts per million dry volume (ppm) or less. Both new and retrofit gas technologies are clearly needed to meet the challenge of these requirements. GRI and D O N L E E Technologies are developing an industrial steam boiler that applies cyclonic combustion to attain high efficiency and low N O x emissions. The D O N L E E TurboFire XL attains high efficiency and steam capacity by combining its patented cyclonic burner technology with two-stage combustion. Field testing of a 1000-hp unit at Knouse Foods 2 1-1 |