United States
                   Environmental Protection
                   Agency
Air and Energy Engineering
Research Laboratory
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
                   Research and Development
EPA/600/S7-90/002 May 1990
&EPA          Project  Summary

                    A Low  NOX  Strategy  for
                    Combusting  High Nitrogen
                    Content  Fuels
                    Ravi K. Srivastava
                      A multistaged combustion burner
                   designed for in-furnace NOX control
                   and high combustion efficiency has
                   been evaluated for high nitrogen con-
                   tent fuel and  waste incineration
                   application  in  a 1.0 MW package
                   boiler simulator. A low NOX precom-
                   bustion chamber burner  has been
                   reduced in size by a factor of about
                   two (from 600-250 ms  first-stage
                   residence time) and coupled with 1)
                   air staging, resulting in a three-stage
                   configuration, and 2) natural gas fuel
                   staging,  yielding up   to  four
                   stoichiometric  zones. Natural gas,
                   doped with ammonia to yield  a 5.8%
                   fuel nitrogen content,  and distillate
                   fuel oil, doped with pyridine to yield a
                   2% fuel nitrogen content,  were used
                   to  simulate high  nitrogen content
                   fuel/waste  mixtures. Minimum  NO
                   emission levels of  160 ppm and 110
                   ppm (corrected to zero percent O2)
                   were achieved for the natural gas and
                   fuel oil tests,  respectively.  These
                   results  correspond to about 85 per-
                   cent  reduction  in  NOX  emissions
                   compared to uncontrolled emissions
                   from a conventional burner mounted
                   on a 0.7 MW  commercial package
                   boiler. Under the conditions tested,
                   net chemical destruction  of NO  via
                   reburning  does  not  seem  to  be
                   evident. This  may  be  due to the
                   existence of rather low primary  NO
                   concentrations before the application
                   of reburning. However, a  beneficial
                   dilution caused by reburning,  as
                   applied here, may provide lower  NO
                   emissions (on a ppm  or  lb/106 Btu
                   basis) along with  no  loss in heat
                   output.
                    This  Project  Summary was
                   developed by EPA's Air and Energy
                   Engineering  Research Laboratory,
Research Triangle Park, NC,  to
announce key findings of the research
project that is fully documented In a
separate report of the same title (see
Project Report ordering information at
back).


Introduction
  The family of nitrogen oxide com-
pounds, including nitric oxide (NO)  and
nitrogen dioxide (NO2), is generally
referred to as "NOX." These NOX species
are  formed during  the  combustion of
coal, oil, and natural gas by the reduction
and oxidation of molecular nitrogen  (N2)
and nitrogen contained in the fuel. NO2 is
a  poisonous  gas  that  the U.S.
Environmental Protection  Agency (EPA)
has designated as  a criteria pollutant
because of its harmful effects to human
health. In  addition,  NOX emissions  are
known to contribute to the formation of
photochemical oxidants and  are precur-
sors, along with sulfur oxides (SOX), of
acid precipitation. Two more areas of
concern are emerging regarding  NOX
levels  in the atmosphere. First, forest
damage as a result of acid precipitation,
reported to be  extensive  in  the Federal
Republic of Germany, has been linked
with increasing NOX levels. Second,
increasing  levels of atmospheric nitrous
oxide (N2O) have been measured, levels
that are predicted to contribute to both a
decline in the abundance of stratospheric
ozone and  an increase in  climatic
warming.  Studies  of N2O and  NO
concentration in experimental flames and
in flue gases indicate that a correlation
may exist  between these  two gases
formed in combustion processes.
  The  EPA estimates that  about  20
million  tons (18,000  Gg) of NOX  are
emitted annually from stationary  and

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mobile sources in the U.S. Unlike  SOX
emissions, NOX emissions are increasing.
Coal- and oil-fired utility and industrial
boilers account for over half of these  NOX
emissions.
  Only 15 percent of the stationary  NOX
sources are regulated by EPA's New
Source Performance  Standards (NSPS);
the remainder must  be addressed  with
retrofit technologies  if significant  NOX
emission reduction  is to  be realized.
Another NOX control problem is posed by
the potential of incinerating  high nitrogen
content wastes in  industrial boilers. While
incineration of these materials would not
constitute a significant increase in  the
overall national Nx emission level, indiv-
idual plant emissions may be sufficient to
cause a local NOX problem  that would
prevent governmental permitting of  on-
site incineration. As thermal destruction is
an attractive alternative to landfill  storage
of wastes,  the  need  continues  for
developing  high  efficiency,  low NOX
combustion technologies.
  Most NOX in stack combustion gas is
NO.  Much   is  known  about  the
mechanisms of NO formation in  flames,
both from  molecular  nitrogen (source of
thermal  NO) and  from  fuel-bound
nitrogen (source of fuel NO). Thermal NO
can  be reduced by  decreasing peak
flame temperatures.  Fuel  NO is very
sensitive  to  reactant stoichiometry  and
fuel-rich conditions promote N2 formation
over NO formation. Laboratory  studies
and field test data have established the
importance  of fuel   NO  to the total
emission of NOX from residual fuel oil  and
coal flames. Therefore, minimizing  NOX
formation in  flames typically involves
controlling air  and fuel mixing  rates to
create fuel-rich   reducing  zones  and
extracting heat to reduce final oxidation
temperatures.
   To avoid the  need for  costly post-
combustion  NOX removal,  several in-
furnace NOX control strategies have been
developed and applied to boilers. These
include  reduced air  preheat, load
reduction,  low  excess  air,  flue  gas
reclrculation,  overfire  air,  deep  air
staging, fuel staging  (or reburning),  and
various Iow-N0x  burner systems. While
NOX emissions can be reduced  by  20-
80%  using  these technologies, from
uncontrolled levels exceeding 1,000 ppm
for some high nitrogen content coals, the
application of these combustion modifica-
tions can reduce combustion  efficiency
and increase sooting  and  slagging in the
boiler. These problems are of concern in
the boiler cofiring of fuels  and  wastes
where high waste destruction efficiencies
and  minimal  formation  of   other
incomplete combustion  products are of
paramount  importance.  Furthermore,
practical constraints, such  as burner and
boiler sizes, limit the effectiveness of NOX
control by combustion modification.
  EPA  is  currently  involved  in  the
development  and field  demonstration of
two evolving  NOX control  technologies:
the precombustion chamber burner and
reburning  (fuel  staging).   These
combustion modification strategies pro-
vide alternatives to expensive post-com-
bustion NOX removal technologies, such
as selective catalytic reduction which is
being utilized  extensively  in Japan  and
West Germany, for achieving  low NOX
emissions  when firing high  nitrogen
content  fuels  or incinerating  highly
nitrated wastes. The goal of this work was
to utilize  the  precombustion  chamber
burner and air or air/fuel  staging  to
develop a burner that is practical for both
new and  retrofit  installations  and is
capable  of  burning   high  nitrogen
fuel/waste streams with low NOX emis-
sions and  high  combustion efficiency.
Specifically, a NOX emission of less than
0.2 Ib  (as  NO2)/106  Btu (or about  175
ppm NOX measured dry at  zero% O2) for
firing gaseous and liquid fuels doped with
up  to  5% nitrogen  (by  weight) was
targeted (1 lb/106 Btu = 0.43 kg/GJ).
  This study was carried  out in three
phases. Phase 1 dealt with  a fundamental
exploration of  post-flame combustion
technology, known as reburning. In this
phase the fundamentals of  reburning and
its suitability to combustion applications
were studied  in detail. This study lasted
from March 1983 to October 1984.
  The burner used during Phase 1 was a
low NOX precombustion chamber burner,
designed and  fabricated under  an EPA
contract by Energy and Environmental
Research Corporation  (EERC),  Irvine,
California. The  burner  proved to be  a
useful  research  tool,  though  its
practicality was  limited  because  of  its
size and  cost. As a follow-on  of the
reburning work, the burner was reduced
in size from 600 ms to 350 ms first-stage
residence  time.  Subsequent  proof-of-
concept tests involving  the reduced size
precombustion chamber low  NOX burner
and  air  or air/fuel staging were  carried
out. The  proof-of-concept tests in  Phase
2 helped  to generate the experimental
matrix for Phase 3.
  During Phase 3, a  vertical downfired
combustor was  designed, fabricated, and
installed. It was of a modular design to
allow residence time variations, and was
capable of firing gaseous or liquid fuels. It
had  ports for detailed  samplings and
variable fuels and air injection  locations/
methods. Parametric tests were  carried
out using this new  burner to rigorously
test and prove the concepts generated irj
Phase 2.
  This  report  covers project  activities
between November 1984 and  July 1987.


Experimental Approach and
Results
  The goal  of this study was  to minimize
NO formation,  with an emission target
175  ppm (dry, at zero  percent  O2) oil
less, and maintain efficient incineration ofl
surrogate fuel/waste mixtures  with  up to
percent fuel  nitrogen by  using
precombustion chamber burner reduced)
in size by about half.
  The  experimental  facility,  used inl
Phase  1 and shown schematically inl
Figure  1a,  consists  of a precombustionl
chamber low-NOx burner and a packagel
boiler  simulator. The  precombustionl
chamber burner consists of a primary!
and air injection module, two 0.91  m  long!
spool modules  with 0.51   m internal!
diameter, and  a 0.33 m long convergent!
module. These burner modules  have  a!
thick refractory wall  lining to  minimize!
heat loss, maintaining the high tempera-1
tures that promote  conversion  of  fuel!
nitrogen to N2 under fuel-rich stoichio-l
metries. To achieve  rapid mixing  in the I
precombustion chamber, the primary fuel I
is injected through a divergent nozzle and I
the primary air, which is not preheated, is I
passed  through  fixed swirl vanes.  The
convergent  module  minimizes   back-
mixing  of combustion gas and radiation
loss to  the   boiler. A  water-cooled
transition  module,  0.25  m  internal
diameter,  cools  the combustion  gas
before secondary air addition  to minimize
thermal NO  generation. Primary  fuel
nitrogen is  simulated  by  premixing
ammonia into natural  gas or pyridine into
distillate fuel  oil  prior to primary  fuel [
injection.
  The pilot-scale boiler simulator is rated
at  0.9  MW thermal  input. The boiler's I
radiant section is horizontal, 0.6 m in
diameter, 3.0  m  long, and cooled  with
Dowtherm  G  heat transfer   fluid.
Combustion gas exits the boiler through a
vertical stack. The boiler's front face has
8 axial ports for addition of staged  air.
  The research facility was modified as
shown  in Figure 1b.  The horizontal 2.66
m  long  precombustion chamber  burner
was  shortened to 1.75 m by  removing
one of the  spool sections. This  shorter
burner, with a  nominal residence  time of
350  ms, has  all the essential  design
features of the long  horizontal  burner,
which has a  nominal residence time of

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    Primary Air
         • '*' \l:'f''-Refractory/-"'
           "     '        i i
                         Radial Secondary Air
 Primary Fuel
                                     Package Boiler Simulator

                                      Dowtherm Cooled 	
                                                                   Stack
                                                                  Sample
                                                                   Port
                    Water Cooled-' *-Axial Secondary Air

                           (a) Long, Horizontal Burner
            Primary Air
                          Radial Secondary Air
       Primary Fuel
                                      Package Boiler Simulator

                                       Dowtherm Cooled 	
                                                                    Stack
                                                                 3 Sample
                                                                    Port
                    Wafer Cooled-' '-Axial Secondary Air

                           (b) Short, Horizontal Burner
Figure 1. Pilot-scale  combustion research facility. The package boiler simulator ftas been
         fitted with a precombustion chamber burner and air and fuel staging ports.
600 ms. Two of the eight axial air ports
on the boiler front face were modified to
provide ports  for  staging fuel into  the
boiler  at an  angle of 45°. This  design
allows for reburning application from the
boiler front face, with  aerodynamic
separation  of the  fuel-lean and fuel-rich
zones in the boiler. The end plate of the
boiler  has  been  modified  to  allow  the
insertion of a water-cooled boom for deep
staging of air into the boiler.
  The experimental facility is designed
for independent control and measurement
of each fuel, fuel dopant, and air stream.
Stack  gas  speciation is measured by  a
continuous  emissions monitoring system.
NO and NOX are measured  by chemi-
luminescence. Reported  in this paper are
NO measurements only,  measured on  a
dry basis and corrected to zero percent
O2, (spot-check measurements of  NOX
indicated that NO emissions  accounted
for over 95  percent of the exhaust NOX
emissions).
  At a primary burner firing  rate of 0.6
MW and  a  nominal first-stage  stoichi-
ometry of 0.7, shortening  the  precom-
bustion chamber burner by  removing one
of the two modules decreased  the bulk
combustion gas first-stage residence time
from 600  to 350 ms. In  baselines tests
(without reburning), first-stage stoichiom-
etry was varied, with exhaust excess air
held constant  at about 15%. Ammonia
was  doped  into the  natural  gas fuel
steam, resulting in a fuel nitrogen content
of 0.66% by weight. Figure 2 shows data
for both the  short and long burners. The
minimum NO emission was  observed at a
first-stage stoichiometry of  about 0.7,
consistent with earlier  data at a  similar
scale. The sharp minimum in the curve
indicates the sensitivity of NO emission to
first-stage  stoichiometry.  The minimum
 NO  emission  increased  from 50-75  to
 200-250  ppm  in going to the shortened
 burner. These ranges represent average
 NO emissions achievable given the small
 fluctuations in fuel and air flows.
  The amount of NH3 dopant was varied
 at the optimum first-stage  stoichiometry
 (0.7) for both the short and long burners.
 Figure 3  shows that NO levels  in the
 short burner are  more sensitive to fuel
 nitrogen  content than those in the  long
 burner.  With no  NH3  addition,  NO
 emission from the short  burner was 90
 ppm; from  the  long burner, the NO
 emission  was  40  ppm.  These  levels
 indicated the thermal NO component  of
 the  NO  emission,  coming  from the
 molecular nitrogen (N2) in the air.  During
 operation with the  short burner, a longer
 flame was observed  in  the  boiler  than
 during operation  with the  long  burner,
 because  combustion of the hydrocarbon
 was  less advanced at the secondary air
 addition  location  for  the  short  burner.
 Consequently, the peak  temperatures  in
 the boiler  burnout zone were slightly
 higher than for the long burner. With the
 addition of NH3 dopant,  the long  burner
 NO emissions increased to 100 ppm, or a
 net  60  ppm contribution  from  the
 surrogate fuel nitrogen. The short  burner
 NO emissions for high NH3 dopant .levels
 in the fuel stream  approached 250 ppm,
 or a 160  ppm net increase due to fuel
 nitrogen.  The  reduced first-stage resid-
 ence  time resulted in less fuel nitrogen
 being  reduced to N2 in  the fuel-rich
 precombustion chamber. As fuel nitrogen
 content increased  above  2%, the  result-
 ing increase in NO emissions became
 small.
  Thus, an  effect  of halving  the  burner
 size  is  to  increase  minimum  NO
 emissions for  high nitrogen  fuels from
 100-250 ppm. Another effect  is to move
 some of  the flame back  into the  boiler,
 although  still much of the heat  release
 remains in the preburner. With a shorter
 flame  length  in   the  boiler with  the
 preburner than  with a  conventional
 burner, reburning,  which  requires boiler
 volume, is an ideal technology for achiev-
 ing additional in-furnace NO reduction.
  Subsequently,  preliminary tests  were
 performed to evaluate the  concept of
 natural gas reburning of combustion
 gases from  a half-sized  precombustion
 chamber  burner. A primary NO level  of
 260  ppm  was maintained  by operating
the   burner  at  an   off-optimum
 stoichiometry  of   0.65 to reduce the
 amount  of fixed nitrogen  dopant  (NH3)
 required  to  achieve  this  emission.  This
 NO  level  represents the  maximum

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      rooo
       900
       800
       700

   *   600
       500
       400
       300
       200
       TOO
                 Short Precombustion
                   Chamber (lower
                   residence time)
           -  Long Precombustion
              Chamber (higher
              residence time)
         0.4
0.5
                             0.6
0.7
                                                 0.8
                                                           0.9
                                                  1.0
                            First-Stage Stoichiometric Ratio
 Figure 2. Influence  of first-stage  residence time  on  NO emission  for short and long
          preburners.
emission of the half-sized  burner when
burning fuels with up to a 4% fuel nitro-
gen. Primary flame zone stoichiometry
leaving  the preburner was  fixed at  1.1.
The locations  of  staged fuel  and  air
addition were varied.
  Figure 4 shows the effect of reburn fuel
injection location on  NO  emissions.
Reburning fuel was added at the 107, 30,
and 10  cm axial locations in the boiler.
Burnout air was added at 168 cm. Figure
4 it was observed that  slightly lower NO
emissions were achieved injecting  the
reburn fuel downstream  of the primary
flame.  However, even  injecting reburn
fuel at  the outlet of the precombustion
chamber resulted in significantly reduced
NO emissions. The data suggest  that
reburn fuel can be injected at the boiler
front face and still achieve NO emissions
of less than 150 ppm.
                       Figure 5 shows the effect of burnout air
                     injection location on  exhaust  NO levels.
                     With reburning fuel injected at 30 cm, air
                     was  injected through axial ports on the
                     boiler front face. The results  show only
                     slightly  higher NO emissions than with
                     deep-staged (168 cm) burnout air. Thus,
                     injecting burnout air from the boiler front
                     face  results  in  NO  emissions  that
                     approach the 175 ppm level.
                       Based on the results of the preliminary
                     tests, a new burner system was designed
                     and  installed so that reburning  fuel  and
                     air could both be injected from the boiler
                     front  wall. The new burner,  shown in
                     Figure 6, was  made  vertical  to  increase
                     preburner temperatures by reducing
                     radiative heat  loss to the boiler and  by
                     taking advantage of  thermal  buoyancy
                     effects.  This  vertical burner, with  a
                     nominal  residence time of 250 ms, has all
                                          the  essential  features of the horizontal |
                                          precombustion chamber burner.
                                            A North American  (NA)  Scotch-type I
                                          package  boiler was  used to  provide
                                          conventional  burner  results  for  com-
                                          parison  with  the  multistaged burner]
                                          results. This boiler is a  three-pass unit,
                                          with a continuous service rating of 0.3 kg
                                          of steam per second (2,400 Ib/h). Its size
                                          and thermal characteristics  are nearly
                                          identical to those  of the package  boiler |
                                          simulator.
                                            The  parameters affecting the  NOX
                                          emissions from the facility  with unstaged
                                          controls were fuel  nitrogen  content,
                                          combustion gas residence  time in  the
                                          prechamber,  first-stage stoichiometry,
                                          and exhaust stoichiometry. The residence
                                          time of combustion gas in  the burner
                                          depended  on precombustion  chamber
                                          length, load,  and stoichiometry.  The
                                          nominal load was 0.6  MW  and 15%
                                          excess air, respectively.  Nominal fuel
                                          nitrogen content for the  fuel oil/pyridine
                                          mixture was 2% by weight;  for the natural
                                          gas/ammonia fuel the nominal  fuel
                                          nitrogen content  was  5.8%.  Preburner
                                          stoichiometry  was  optimized for all tests
                                          on this facility.
Burner Stoichiometry Variation
  First-stage stoichiometry was varied by
changing the primary air flow. Secondary
radial air was adjusted to maintain 15%
excess  air. The results are  plotted in
Figure 7.  The curves indicate a  strong
sensitivity of  stack NO to changes in
burner stoichiometry. For the gas tests, a
minimum  NO  emission of  315  ppm
occurred at a  burner stoichiometry of
about 0.78; for the oil tests, a minimum of
190  ppm  occurred at  0.65.  Thus,
additional combustion modifications were
necessary to  meet the program goal of
less than 175 ppm.
  The  shift   in  optimum  burner
stoichiometry  suggests a variation  in the
thermal environment in  the  precombus-
tion  chamber.  Figure 8, shows burner
temperatures  measured  by  suction
pyrometry. Radiation and  conduction
errors  are  estimated to be less than
30°C.  The burner temperatures  were
found to be higher for the oil tests; thus,
the shift in optimum stoichiometry.
  In tests on the North American boiler, a
NO emission of 1,000 ppm resulted when
firing the 5.8%  nitrogen  gas fuel at 15%
excess  air. A NO emission of 765 ppm
resulted when  firing the  2%  nitrogen oil
mixture at 15%  excess air. Thus, the low
NOX  burner reduced  NO emissions  by

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              300
              250
         e
         a
         -§    200
         o
         1
         s
         .c
              750
              ?00
               50
  First Stage
Residence Time
   350 ms
                                      600 ms
                            1          2          3

                          Simulated Primary Fuel Nitrogen, %
 Figure 3.  Influence of fuel nitrogen content on minimum NO emission for short and long
          preburners.
68% for the gas iue\ and by 75% for the
oil mixture.
Fuel Nitrogen Variation
  The effect of fuel nitrogen variation is
shown in  Figure 9. Exhaust NO level
increased  with  increasing  fuel nitrogen
content in the fuel/waste  stream,  as
expected, with a much greater sensitivity
observed  in  the  conventional North
American  burner tests. These  results
demonstrate the precombustion chamber
burner's ability to reduce fuel nitrogen to
molecular nitrogen,  even with its reduced
size (250 ms). The full  size (600-800 ms)
precombustion chamber burner produces
NO emissions even less sensitive to fuel
nitrogen content.


Reburning Tests
  In these tests, the total boiler load was
held constant while fuel was diverted
from  the  primary  injector  to  two
secondary injectors.  In this  case,  the
 staged fuel  (undoped natural gas) was
 injected into the boiler downstream of the
 secondary  radial air addition. Thus,  a
 four-stage  combustion  process  was
 established, consisting  of a  fuel-rich
 burner  zone and  three boiler  zones
 characteristic of reburning (i.e., fuel-lean,
 fuel-rich, fuel-lean). The stoichiometry in
 the third   stage  (SR3,  the fuel-rich
 reburning zone in the boiler) is critical in
 this NOX  control  process. As  already
 described, all of the staged air and fuel
 flows were injected from the front face of
 the boiler  at various angles,  resulting in
 the three boiler stoichiometric zones.
   Fuel  oil/pyridine  and  natural  gas/
 ammonia results are given in  Figure 10.
 Two second-stage  stoichiometries (SR2)
 were established:  1.1  and 1.0. The  NO
 emissions  under no staging conditions for
 the 5.8% nitrogen gaseous fuel firing and
 2.0% nitrogen liquid fuel firing were 315
 and 190 ppm,  respectively.  With 35%
 fuel staging and 5.8% nitrogen gaseous
 fuel firing, the NO  emissions  decreased
 to 195 ppm at a SR2 of 1.1 (and a SR3 of
0.72) and  to  160 ppm  at a  SR2 of 1.0
(and a SR3 of 0.65). Again, with 35% fuel
staging  and 2.0% nitrogen  liquid fuel
firing,  the  NO emissions decreased  to
120 ppm at a SR2 of 1.1 (and a SR3 of
0.76) and  to  110 ppm  at a  SR2 of 1.0
(and a SR3 of 0.69). Due to less distinct
stoichiometric  zones   than  typically
established in reburning application, the
decrease  in NO levels  by  fuel  staging
was not quite as great as that obtained
when the staged  fuel was injected farther
downstream  of  the  fuel-lean  primary
combustion  zone;  however,  the
configuration used in these tests requires
no  boiler  penetrations.  In  addition,
complete  destruction  of the  primary
fuel/waste  stream appears to be ensured
by providing all  of the  required primary
combustion air  prior to entry  into the
boiler.


Discussion and Conclusions
  The   combination   of  shortened
precombustion  chamber  burner and
reburning  met  the  program  goal  of
attaining an  NO  emission of  about 175
ppm from  firing gaseous and liquid fuels
doped  with up  to  5%  nitrogen. For
reburning  (as applied  here),  the net
decrease in NO  emissions seems to  be
predominantly   due to  a  dilution  of
primary  combustion gases by secondary
combustion gases. This can be seen in
Table  1  where NO  concentrations
obtained after adding appropriate dilution
to base NO concentrations are very  close
to those obtained during corresponding
reburning applications.  Thus, net
chemical  destruction   of  NO  during
reburning  under these experimental
conditions  does not seem to be evident.
This may be because of the existence of
rather low  primary  NO concentrations
before applying  reburning.  However,  a
beneficial  dilution caused by reburning,
as applied here,  may provide lower NO
emissions  (on a ppm or lb/106 Btu basis)
along  with no loss in heat  output. This
beneficial  dilution aspect of reburning
application  can  be seen by  comparing
Figures  9  and 10. Substituting 35% of a
5.8%  nitrogen  gaseous fuel  with  a
nitrogen-free one would yield a primary
nitrogen content of 3.77%,  and  from
Figure 9, firing  this fuel would  result in
about 290  ppm  NO. However, for
reburning,  NO emission  can be as low as
160 ppm.

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                                               Burnout Air
           Primary
        Fuel and Air
                  300
                  250
            6    200
                  150
                  100
                   50
                                 Reburning
                                 Fuel (#1)
       Reburn Fuel
       Injection Location:
                                      10 cm C#3;
                    0.7
0.8
0.9

SRR
                                                    1.0
                                                               1.1
Figure 4. NO emissions as a function of reburn zone stoichiometry for various reburn
         fuel Injection locations.

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                 Seconda/yA'r  #2 Reburning  Fuel
           Primary
           Fuel and-
           Air


                300
                250
                200
          O
          S?
                150
                100
                 50
                                                    Burnout Air
                            Burnout Air Injection
                               Location:
                                 0 cm (#2)
                   0.7       0.8        0.9        1.0
                                                             1.1
Figure 5.  NO emissions as a function of reburn zone stoichiometry for various burnout air
          injection locations.

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Primary Fuel
* Primary Air f
T"^L^ 	 | Radial Secondary Air \
Burner
Staged —
Fuel

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Boiler Staged Fuel / ,
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Figure 6. Pilot-scale combustion facility including a
          vertical precombustion chamber burner.
                                                              o
                                                              ro
                                                              i
                                                                     1000
                                                                      900
                                                                      800
                                                                      700
                                                                      600
                                                                      500
                                                                      400
                                                                      300
                                                                      200
                                                                      100
                                                                                        Oil
                                                                                      (2%  N)
 Gas
(2% N)
                                                                         0.4      0.5      0.6      0.7      0.8      0.9

                                                                                       First-Stage  Stoichiometric Ratio
                                                                                                                              1.0
                                                      Figure 7.  Effect of burner stoichiometry. Shown are results from tests firing 2.0%
                                                               and 5.8% nitrogen gas fuel and a 2.0% nitrogen distillate  fuel oil/pyridine
                                                               mixture.

-------
              2300
              2200
              2TOO
              2000
        3
        g     7900
        
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             325
             300  -
             250  -
             200  -
              750  -
              100
                                                                    Primary Fuel
                                                                               Primary Air
                                                                                     Radial Secondary Air
                                                                                      Boiler Staged Fuel
                                                                                       E
                                                                              Axial Staged Air
                               10           20          30        40
                                  Percent Fuel Staging
Figure 10.  Boiler fuel staging results. Shown are results from firing a 5.8% nitrogen gas fuel and a 2.0% nitrogen oil mixture.
                                                                 10

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         Table 1. Dilution Corrections
Configuration
Waste Load %
Fuel
No. 2 Fuel Oil/Pyridine (2% N)
Natural Gas/Ammonia (2% N)
Natural Gas/Ammonia (5.8% N)
Two Stage
100

190
185
315
65

135
130
260
Dilution Added -h
To Two Stage Reburn
65 65
(SR2 = 1.0)
88* 110
-
169" 160
Air Staging
100
Axial
150
-
220
100
Deep
130
—
160
         "Calculations showing addition of dilution:
            Natural gas/ammonia (5.8%N): 0.65 x 260 ppm = 169 ppm
            No. 2 fuel oil/pyridine (2.0 %N): 0.65 x 135 ppm = 88 ppm
R.K.Srivastava is with Acurex Corporation .Research Triangle Park,NC 27709
 James A.  Mulholland is  the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The  complete report, entitled  "A Low NOX Strategy  for  Combusting  High
      Nitrogen Content  Fuels,"  (Order No. PB 90-155  6641 AS;  Cost:  $17.00
      subject to change) will be available only from:
         National Technical Information Service
         5285 Port Royal Road
         Springfield, VA 22161
         Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
         Air and Energy Engineering Research Laboratory
         U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
         Research Triangle Park NC 27711
                                                       11

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