Page 10
| Title | Low NOx Burner for Thermally Enhanced Oil Recovery |
| Creator | Duret, Michael; Kendall, Robert |
| Publisher | Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
| Date | 1994 |
| Spatial Coverage | presented at Maui, Hawaii |
| Abstract | Crude oil pumped from California's Central Valley must be heated to reduce its viscosity. The most common production method is thermally enhanced oil recovery (TEOR). In TEOR operations, natural gas-fired steamers force high-pressure steam into production reservoirs where it heats the crude making it easier to pump. By 1996 all steamers must be retrofit with 10w-NOx burners to achieve less than 30 ppm NOx. Alzeta has developed and demonstrated a 10w-NOx burner for oilfield steamers. The burner is a semiradiant, premixed, natural gas-fired burner which uses a patented technique to form radiant and blue flame zones on a porous metal mat. This technique provides heat fluxes that are ten times greater than traditional porous radiant burners. The burner can also destroy large quantities of low-Btu gases containing hydrogen sulfide. |
| Type | Text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Language | eng |
| Rights | This material may be protected by copyright. Permission required for use in any form. For further information please contact the American Flame Research Committee. |
| Conversion Specifications | Original scanned with Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, 16.7 megapixel digital camera and saved as 400 ppi uncompressed TIFF, 16 bit depth. |
| Scanning Technician | Cliodhna Davis |
| ARK | ark:/87278/s6p84ff6 |
| Setname | uu_afrc |
| ID | 8551 |
| Reference URL | https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6p84ff6 |
Page Metadata
| Title | Page 10 |
| Format | application/pdf |
| OCR Text | 10 Before building the full-sized burner element, a single segment was fabricated and tested. The purpose of the testing was to verify the fabrication and assembly techniques, and to test fire the segment. The full-scale burner element as retrofit into a typical steamer is shown in Figure 5. The burner consists of the following components: • a four-segment element with insulated end cap • a mounting plate and pilot assembly • a fuel/air mixer • combustion air blower and filter The mounting plate assembly positions the burner element in the radiant section of the steamer, and interfaces with the existing port in the front wall. An intermittent pilot is positioned at the beginning of the element. The fuel/air mixer uses high pressure gas and static mixers to ensure that the reactants are fully premixed before combusting on the outer surface of the burner. The mixer also contains separate inputs for natural gas and casing gas. The retrofit was simplified because the new burner was able to use the existing fuel safety shut-off circuit, flame safeguards and controls. A smaller combustion air blower was used to reduce the electrical power consumption by 20 horsepower. Field Testing The goal of the field tests is to operate the burner on casing gas only without derating the steamer and still meet all the emissions requirements. After verifying operation on natural gas alone, increasing amounts of casing gas were added while the natural gas flow was reduced. Figure 6 shows the results of the emissions testing on 500 Btu/fe casing gas. Because of piping limitations at the site, the flow of casing gas was limited to 75% of the flow necessary to fire the steamer at maximum capacity. This blend results in a composite heating value of approximately 600 Btu/fe. |
| Setname | uu_afrc |
| ID | 8548 |
| Reference URL | https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6p84ff6/8548 |