Burner testing facility
Real tests of burners still take a part in research and development of new devices and also in optimization of the construction of the old ones. Burner testing facility allows to carry out tests of gas, liquid abd dueal-fuel burners. The combustion chamber can be used for testing of burners with the maximal thermal input of up to 1.8 MW depending on the shape of the flame and combusted fuel.
Main characteristics
Combustion chamber
The main apparatus is the horizontal water-cooled combustion chamber with an internal diameter of 1 m and a variable length from 2 to 4 m. Cooling of the combustion chamber allows to simulate conditions in the industrial combustion chambers. The water-cooled shell is split into seven cylindrical sections with an independent water supply, monitoring inlet and outlet water temperature and flow rate measurement. The unique construction allows the evaluation of local wall heat fluxes along the length of the flame, which is one of the key parameters in industrial units (e.g. furnaces, boilers, etc.)
The chamber is equipped with 18 inspection holes, which may be used for both the observation of the flame and the installation of additional instrumentation, e.g., the thermocouples, the radiation probe, etc.
The combustion chamber can be operated in both underpressure and overpressure regime. Pressure can be change in the range from – 300 Pa up to 800 Pa.
Fuel management
Gaseous fuels
The combustion chamber is equipped with the natural gas stream line capable of overpressure in a range 90 – 105 kPa. Different fuels can be provided in bundles of bottles. Alternative fuels can be mixed in the gas mixing station, which is capable of mixing up to four different gases (hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and natural gas). Feed of hydrogen is equipped with the mass flow meter Bronkhorst F-206BI and pilot valve, which provides flow regulation. To measure and regulate flow of nitrogen and carbon dioxide are used CTA flow meters by M+W Instruments. Both types of flow meters can be calibrated for the use with different gases such as carbon monoxide.
Liquid fuels
Testing facility is equipped with three different feeding circuits:
- Circuit for feeding light fuel oil LFO
Designed for oils characterized with low viscosity, without the need of preheating before the combustion itself.
| Tank capacity | 250 l |
| Pump | centrifugal |
| Maximal operating pressure | 21 bar |
| Maximal flow rate | 400 l/h |
| Maximal viscosity | 35 cSt |
- Circuit for feeding of hevy fuel oil HFO
The circuit is designed for fuels characterized with high viscosity, which have to be heated up with the purpose lowering the viscosity before the atomization. It is possible to reach the temperature up to 120 °C. In case of need, the additional flow heater may be connected, which can increase the fuel temperature by another 30 °C at the flow rate of 150 l/h.
| Tank capacity | 350 l |
| Pump | gear |
| Maximal operating pressure | 22 bar |
| Maximal operating temperature | 120 °C |
| Maximal flow rate | 400 l/h |
| Minimal viscosity | 21 cSt |
- Circuit for fuels containing solid particulates
This type of fuel is fed in the burner by means of the air overpressure kept above the fuel level in the pressure vessel. The capacity of the vessel is 200 l. The vessel is placed on the industrial scale during tests. This allows to determine the flow rate based on the mass loss of the fuel in the vessel per unit of time.
Combustion air
Combustion air is supplied with a high pressure fan with a capacity of 2,500 mN3/h m3/h and overpressure ca 4,000 Pa. Temperature, pressure and air flow are measured at the inlet pipeline. Currently it is not possible to preheat the combustion air. In case of oxy/fuel or oxygen-enhanced combustion, the high-purity oxygen is supplied from the cryogenic vessels.
Atomizing medium
Two types of atomizing media may be used for the pneumatic atomization: (a) the compressed air that can be heated up to 180 °C at the overpressure of 10 bar, (b) the steam with the maximum temperature of 180 °C and maximum overpressure of 13 bar.
Flue gas analysis
The flue gas analysis is provided with the flue gas analyser TESTO 350XL. The analyser is equipped with the electrochemical sensors for the real time measurement of O2 (measuring range from 0 to 25 % obj.), CO (0 to 1000 ppm), NO (0 to 3000 ppm), NO2 (0 to 500 ppm), SOx (0 to 5000 ppm), CXHY (0 to 40000 ppm). Flue gas temperature is measured by the K-type thermocouple.
Besides the TESTO 350 XL analyser, other external analysers can be installed for the measurement of solid particulates, heavy metals and dioxins.
For download
Leaflet of the burner testing facility (PDF)
Contact information
Ing. Pavel SKRYJA, Ph.D.
Institute of Process Engineering
building D5 (NETME Centre), 4th floor, office No. 441
e-mail: skryja@fme.vutbr.cz
phone: +420 541 144 958
