Most of us benefit from some sort of combustion every day. Whether for the release of heat or the expansion of gas to perform work, this special category of oxidation is probably the most widely-used chemical reaction in our daily lives. Like most chemical reactions, there are parameters that need to be present not only for the reaction to take […]
Pressure Atomization vs. Air Atomization
While many boiler rooms and power plants have been swapping out old coal and oil-fired burners/boilers for natural gas and bio-fuels, there still will always be the need for oil burners/boilers in the world. With this need, come the multiple options of how to burn the oil. While there are many different variations, the two main methods of […]
Return pumps: Not just for returning fuel
Are there any fuel oil handling systems that don’t need return pumps? Are there any advantages to not having return pumps? While it is true that I have worked on system designs and executions that have not included return pumps, my general answer is “no,” there are not any advantages. And there are many different functional reasons why, […]
Combustion Theory – Efficiency
Understanding Combustion Efficiency The efficiency of a burner-boiler combination is simply the amount of useful energy leaving the system expressed as a percentage of the chemical energy in the fuel entering the system. Why should I care about efficiency? Accounting for the loss of useful energy is an important step in evaluating overall cost. For instance, a change in […]
Combustion Theory: Variables
Accounting for variations in oxygen and fuel For any burner-boiler combination, there is an ideal “minimum excess air” level for each firing rate over the turn-down range. Usually, burners require much higher levels of excess air when operating near their minimum firing rates than they do at “high fire.” More serious factors than dirty fan wheels and dampers […]
Combustion Theory: The Basics
Introduction Welcome to the Combustion blog series by Preferred Utilities Manufacturing Corporation. To read the introductory post, click here. This series was inspired by Local Law 87, an environmental regulation passed by New York City legislators. LL87 seeks to reduce the city’s emissions by 50% while increasing the overall efficiency of large residential buildings (over 50,000 gross sq. […]