A PAPER ON LOW-NO

x
BURNERS
SATYENDRA RANA (2012MEY7522)
Mechanical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Abstract
This paper reports on the necessity, design and functioning of low-NO
x
industrial burners. In low-NO
x
burners(LNBs),
standard NO
x
reduction techniques eects are internally designed into the burners. Ultralow-NOx burners (ULNBs) are
also available which combines two NO
x
reduction techniques into one burner without any external equipment. Use of
low-NO
x
burners is one of the methods of combustion modications strategy in NO
x
control techniques. Discussion on
design of LNBs are mostly focussed on gas and liquid fuel burners. Mechanisms and factors aecting the NO
x
formation
are also discussed. Experimental data from authors is also given which conrms the design of the LNBs and ULNBs.
Coverage in this article is restricted to only the stationary sources of NO
x
.
Keywords: Low-NO
x
burners, Ultralow-NO
x
burners, ue gas recirculation
1. Introduction
Conventional burners are designed in such a way that
fuel and oxidizer mixes rapidly and uniformly to get more
rapid and complete combustion reaction. The drawback
to this approach is that the combustion reaction will gen-
erate maximum ame temperature and hence extremely
large amount of nitrogen oxides (NO
x
). Before the imple-
mentation of air-quality regulations, the ue gases from
all the combustion processes were vented directly to the
atmosphere without even caring about the emissions espe-
cially NO
x
. Because of the ever tightening air-quality laws
and increased public awareness, low-NO
x
burners are be-
coming an integral part of the industry to meet the strin-
gent emission control limits. Since emissions of NO
x
is
unavoidable, various strategies are devised by engineers
and researchers for the abatement of NO
x
emissions from
dominant sources. Burners are generally classied by the
amount of nitrogen oxide (NO
x
) emissions they produce:
conventional burners, low-NO
x
burners, and ultralow-NO
x
burners.
2. Nitrogen Oxides (NO
x
)
NO
x
refers to oxides of nitrogen. These generally in-
clude nitrogen monoxide, also known as nitric oxide (NO),
and nitrogen dioxide (NO
2
). They may also include ni-
trous oxide (N
2
O), nitrogen tetroxide (N
2
O
4
) and nitrogen
pentoxide (N
2
O
5
). The EPA (U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency) denes nitrogen oxides as all oxides of
nitrogen except nitrous oxide [1].
2.1. Mechanisms of NO
x
Formation and Destruction in
Flames
In combustion of fossil fuels (Figure 1), NO
x
is pro-
duced by three principal mechanisms: thermal, prompt,
and fuel NO
x
formation.
2.1.1. Thermal NO
x
Thermal NO
x
is formed by the xation of atmospheric
(molecular) nitrogen by atomic oxygen at high tempera-
ture in oxidizing atmospheres by the Zeldovich mechanism,
which is a sequence of complicated reactions. The simpli-
ed reaction is [2]:
N
2
+O
2
NO, NO
2
(1)
Out of all the reactions, the two predominant reactions
are:
O +N
2
NO +N (2)
N +O
2
NO +O (3)
The extended Zeldovich mechanism includes a third equa-
tion:
N +OH NO +H (4)
The Zeldovich mechanism dominates in fuel-lean high tem-
perature (> 1100

C) combustion processes.
Thermal NO
x
increases exponentially with tempera-
ture (Figure 2). The rate of formation is signicant only
at high temperatures (> 1800K) and doubles for every
increase in ame temperature of about 40K [3].Therefore
for those-high temperature heating applications where air
preheating or oxygen enrichment of air is used to increase
the ame temperature, this mechanism become very im-
portant.
2.1.2. Prompt NO
x
The NO formed by this mechanism is called Prompt
because of its formation very early at the ame front.
Template of Elsevier June 2, 2014

Figure 1: Formation and Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides in Combustion [4]
As the fuel pyrolyzes, it generates fuel radicals. In fuel-
rich systems (bold lines in Figure 1) particularly when the
stoichiometry is less than 0.6, atmospheric nitrogen, N
2
,
can be captured by its reaction with hydrocarbon radi-
cals. The formation of prompt NO follows the following
simplied reaction paths [4]:
(a) Reactions of N
2
with hydrocarbon radicals produce
cyanide (HCN):
CH
i
+N
2
HCN +N, NH (5)
(b) Hydrogen abstraction reactions of HCN generate am-
monia radicals (NH, NH
2
) via oxycyanogens (HNCO,
NCO):
HCN +OH HNCO, NCO +H, H
2
O (6)
HNCO, NCO +H NH
i
+CO (7)
(c) Ammonia radicals form NO:
N, NH +O, OH NO +H, H
2
O (8)
A part of the prompt NO formed is then converted into
NO
2
[1].
NO +HO
2
NO
2
+OH (9)
NO
2
can also get destructed by the following reactions to
get NO :
NO
2
+H NO +OH (10)
NO
2
+O NO +O
2
(11)
Below a stoichiometry of 0.5, all the NO
x
is formed is
due to prompt NO
x
. The rate of formation of prompt
NO
x
is very high (< 1ms) and it is not as temperature sen-
sitive as thermal NO
x
. Unlike thermal NO
x
, simply low-
ering the peak ame temperatures will not reduce prompt
NO
x
into the single digit ppm range (Figure 3).
2.1.3. Fuel NO
x
Fuel NO
x
is formed by the oxidation of nitrogen con-
tained in the fuel. As the molecular bonds breaks during
2

Figure 2: Adiabatic Equilibrium NO as a Function of Gas Temper-
ature for = 1 [5].

Figure 3: Prompt NO
x
Formation [1].
the combustion process, this nitrogen is freed up as ni-
trogen radicals. These will readily oxidize to form NO in
oxidizing atmospheres even at moderate combustion tem-
peratures as described during the thermal NO
x
formation
process, to form NO
x
. The organic or fuel N is converted
to molecular nitrogen (N
2
) in a sequence of fuel-rich py-
rolysis reactions (Figure 1). The primary product of the
pyrolysis is HCN which is then converted via oxycyanogen
radicals to amines as shown in prompt NO
x
mechanism.
These ammonia radicals form N
2
in the reducing atmo-
sphere by the following simplied reactions [4]:
NH
i
+NH
i
, H N
2
+H
2
(12)
NO formed at the early part of the combustion pro-
cess get destructed by either reacting with amines or by
reacting with hydrocarbon radicals.
NO +NH, NH
2
N
2
+O, OH (13)
NO +CH
i
HCN +O, OH, H
2
O (14)
2.2. Sources of NO
x
The NO
x
emissions stationary sources are primarily
utility boilers, furnace heaters, metal melting industry,
glass industry, hydrocarbon reneries, petrochemical and
gas processing industry and stationary engines. Most of
the combustion processes operate at high temperatures
and high excess air levels to get high thermal eciencies.
Also the residence time of the combustion products are
longer in the combustion chamber. These conditions are
most favourable for NO
x
formation. Nitrogen fertilizers
and Nitric acid plants also contributes signicantly to the
NO
x
emissions at local level [3].
2.3. Environmental and Health Concerns, [5]
In the most of high-temperature heating applications,
the majority of the NO
x
exiting the stack is in the form
of NO. NO is colourless gas that rapidly combines with
O
2
in the atmosphere to form NO
2
. NO is poisonous to
humans and can cause irritation of the eyes and throat,
tightness of the chest, nausea, headache, and gradual loss
of strength. Prolonged exposure to NO can cause violent
coughing, diculty in breathing, cyanosis, and could be
fatal.
NO
2
is a reddish brown gas that has a suocating
odor. It is highly toxic and hazardous because of its abil-
ity to cause delayed chemical pneumonitis and pulmonary
edema. NO
2
vapors are a strong irritant to the pulmonary
tract. Inhalation may also cause irritation of the eyes and
throat, tightness of the chest, headache, nausea, and grad-
ual loss of strength. Severe symptoms may be delayed and
include cyanosis, increased diculty in breathing, irregular
respiration, fatigue, and possible death due to pulmonary
edema. Chronic or repeated exposure to NO
2
could cause
a permanent decrease in pulmonary function. Intermit-
tent low-level NO
2
exposure may also induce kidney, liver,
spleen, red blood cell, and immune system alterations.
In the lower atmosphere, NO reacts with oxygen to
form ozone (O
3
). Ozone is also a health hazard, which
can cause respiratory problems in humans. When NO
2
forms in the atmosphere and comes in contact with water
(moisture), it decomposes to produce nitrous acid (HNO
2
)
and nitric acid (HNO
3
) which are highly corrosive and acid
rain is produced. Acid rain is destructive to many things
it contacts, including plants, trees, and man-made struc-
tures like buildings, bridges, and statues. When sunlight
comes in contact with a mixture of NO
2
and unburned
hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, photochemical smog is
produced.
2.4. Regulations
Due to the many health and environmentally related
problems caused by NO
x
, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has declared NO
x
as major pollutant. Reg-
ulations for NO
x
vary by country,region and the type of
industry. The United States, Japan, and Germany have
the strictest regulations. Regulations are discussed in de-
tail in Sutton [6]. Indian regulations are given by Central
pollution control board (CPCB) [7].
3. Low-NO
x
Burners
Low-NO
x
burners combines the NO
x
reduction tech-
niques such as fuel/oxidizer staging, exhaust gas recircula-
3
tion and ultralean premix to delay the fuel and air/oxidizer
mixing, or reduce the level of fuel and oxidizer mixing, ex-
tending the reaction zone to reduce the peak temperature
and thus the NO
x
emissions. Conventional burners NO
x
levels range from 100-300ppm depending upon fuel and
operating conditions. Low-NO
x
burners emits NO
x
in the
range of 20-30ppm. Ultralow-NO
x
burners(ULNBs) NO
x
emissions are in sub-10-ppm range. These burners use the
principle of staged fuel combustion in combination with in-
ternal ue gas recirculation. ULNBs are discussed in the
next section. Figure 4 shows the NO
x
level of low-NO
x
burners developed for round ame process burners. Typi-
cal NO
x
reductions for dierent low-NO
x
burners are given
in Table 1. Recirculation of relatively cool combustion ex-
haust gases back into the combustion zone is most common
technique used in the industry to control the NO
x
emis-
sions. This addition of exhaust gases increases the mass
ow rate in the combustion zone thereby increasing the
heat release from the ame and thus decreasing the ame
temperature and NO
x
formation. There are two ways to
circulate exhaust gases - ue gas recirculation (FlGR) and
furnace gas recirculation (FuGR). In FlGR, stack gases
are recirculated and mixed with the combustion air to the
burner. There are three problems with mixing ue gases
to conventional burners [2]:
(i) Increased capital and operating cost due to addi-
tional fan required to transport the hot ue gases
to the burner combustion air system, insulation of
the additional duct carrying the recirculated gases,
ow control dampers and requirement of redesigned
(to handle the hot ue gases) burner parts.
(ii) Very high levels of FlGR is required to meet the cur-
rent stringent norms of NO
x
emissions.
(iii) At high ow rate of FlGR burner operation becomes
unstable.
Low-NO
x
burners are designed to minimize these above
problems by (1) Reducing NO
x
without using the FlGR,
(2) Maximizing the NO
x
reduction using minimum FlGR
and (3) Providing stable burner operation at high ow
rates of FlGR.
Table 1: NO
x
Reductions for Dierent Low-NO
x
Burner Types [8].
Typical NO
x
Burner Type Reductions(%)
Staged-air burner 25 35
Staged-fuel burner 40 50
Low-excess-air burner 20 25
Burner with external FGR 50 60
Burner with internal FGR 40 50
Air or fuel-gas staging with internal FGR 55 75
Air or fuel-gas staging with external FGR 60 80
3.1. Air-Staged Burner
Unlike standard burner (Figure 5), air-staged burner
design (Figure 6) ensures that splitting of combustion air
in primary and secondary (or even tertiary) zones will

Figure 4: Eect of Burner Model on NO
x
[5].

(a) Standard Gas Burner

(b) Standard Oil Burner
Figure 5: Conventional Burners [2].
make fuel-rich and fuel-lean ame regions respectively in
the combustion zone. Fuel injected into the throat of the
burner will mix with the primary air and produces a par-
tially mixed fuel-rich zone in the front part of the ame.
This sub-stoichiometric combustion results in the forma-
tion of H
2
and CO, which are reducing agents. These two
gases then combine with O
2
in the outer combustion zone
4

(a)

(b)
Figure 6: A Typical Air-staged Burner [2].
to limit the oxygen available for NO formation [9]. Fuel
NO
x
is minimized in the primary zone because the fuel-
bound nitrogen is converted into molecular nitrogen, N
2
, in
a sequnece of fuel-rich pyrolysis reactions in the reducing
atmosphere [4]. While the overall stoichiometry remains
same as conventional burner, the combination of fuel-rich
and fuel-lean combustion will give lower peak temperature
and thus the overall temperature will decrease which low-
ers the thermal NO
x
.
However the sub-stoichiometric atmosphere created in
the primary ame zone increases the prompt NO
x
forma-
tion. But the increase in prompt NO
x
is more than nulli-
ed by the total decrease of thermal and fuel NO
x
. The
delayed mixing of fuel and air increases the ame length by
25 to 50% longer than conventional burners of the same
heat input. Due to longer ames the furnace wall will
draw more heat from the combustion process and thereby
reducing the ame temperature and NO
x
. Since fuel-rich
premixed ame was formed at ame front, ame speed in-
creases and thus the ame stability. Baukal [1] discusses
two prototype and patented burners for industrial boilers
designed by authors, which are claimed to have demon-
strated low NO
x
emissions compared to conventional burn-
ers.

(a)

(b)
Figure 7: A Typical Fuel-staged Burner [2].
3.2. Fuel-Staged Burner
In fuel-staged burner(Figure 7), some of the fuel is
supplied in the primary combustion zone and the rest(50-
90%) in secondary and/or tertiary zones. This arrange-
ment ensures a fuel-lean ame at burner front. This fuel
lean condition lowers the prompt NO
x
formation and re-
duces the peak temperature, which lowers the formation
of thermal NO
x
also. Combustion is completed in sec-
ondary and/or tertiary zones where fuel is combusted by
remaining air from primary zone to form a fuel-rich zone.
NO
x
formed in the primary zone is reduced by the H
2
and
CO formed in the fuel-rich zone. While the overall sto-
ichiometry reamin same as the conventional burner, due
to staged combustion over some distance and longer ame
length (50% longer than conventional burner), heat re-
lease is higher and thus much lower peak temperature in
5
the fuel-staged burner case. This lowers the overall ther-
mal NO
x
formation. Fuel-staged burner emits lower NO
x
and has better ame pattern than air-staged burner. In
gas red furnaces, fuel-staged burners are typically used
to lower the NO
x
emissions. NO
x
reductions upto 80% is
clamied by authors for fuel-staged burner [9]. Since liquid
fuels can create fouling problems with the secondary gas
nozzles, this burner is used for ring natural gas and other
light fuels [6].
3.3. Burner with Internal FlGR
This burner, using motive force of fuel gas, inspirates
ue gases from the stack and mix them with the fuel gas
prior to injection into the combustion zone. The ue gas
act as diluent. This reduces the ame temperature and
partial pressure of oxygen, thus reducing the thermal NO
x
[6],[8]. Fuel gas supply pressure of 10-25 psig is sucient
to provide the required motive force. Because of fuel in-
duced FlGR, no external fan is required to send ue gases
into the burner, thus saving substantial power. The use
of ue gases mixed with the fuel, instead of with the com-
bustion air has proven to be 30 to 50% more eective at
NO
x
reduction. This design achieves high level of dilution,
thus reducing the NO
x
emission by 80-85% as compared to
conventional burners [2]. The recirculation rates are lim-
ited by decreased net thermal output at high recirculation
rates.
3.4. Burner with Internal FuGR
In low-NO
x
burner incorporating FuGR (Figure 8), the
products of combustion inside the combustion chamber are
recirculated back into either the ame or inside the burner
to mix with either the fuel (gas or liquid) or the oxidizer.
This is accomplished by a special design of burner, where
high pressure fuel/oxidizer ows through a venturi shape
nozzle to create a vacuum to induce the furnace gases into
the burner. This makes burner operation simple and elimi-
nates the use of any extra duct or fan, although the burner
size becomes large. Since furnace gases are considerably
cooler than the ame, dilution with the fuel/oxidizer re-
duces the peak temperature of the ame and thus mini-
mizes the thermal NO
x
formation. Also the mixing of sig-
nicant concentration of incomplete combustion products
with combustion air reduces the prompt NO
x
concentra-
tion. Flue gases have very small amount of incomplete
combustion products, hence burner using FlGR can only
control thermal NO
x
in contrast to burner using FuGR,
which can limit both thermal and prompt NO
x
. Baukal
[1] summarizes the claim made by dierent authors demon-
strating signicant reductions in NO
x
from an industrial
burner design incorporating FuGR.
4. Ultralow-NO
x
Burners
These burners(Figure 9) use the principle of fuel-staged
combustion in combination with internal ue gas recircu-
lation. Low-NO
x
burners are designed mainly to reduce

(a)

(b)
Figure 8: (a) Schematic of FuGR, (b) Burner Incorporating FuGR
[1].
the thermal NO
x
. But to attain sub-10-ppm NO
x
lev-
els, prompt NO
x
emissions must reduce. To achieve this,
ULNBs are designed to avoid fuel-rich regions by rapidly
mixing gaseous fuel and air near the burner exit by swirling
the mixture. This rapid mixing results in forming a uni-
form mixture at the burner exit, thus reducing the prompt
NO
x
. This rapid mixing can be done in two ways. In the
rst method, a part of the fuel-air mixer is swirled using
the synergy of working of swirler, burner and fuel injec-
tion orices, to increase mixing of large amount of hot
combustion gases. In another method, a steam jet is used
to provide rotational motion to primary combustion zone.
Steam injection increases fuel-air mixing and also helps in
decreasing thermal NO
x
.
In ultralow-NO
x
burners, the rapid and complete com-
bustion that eliminates prompt NO
x
also results in the vir-
tual elimination of CO, unburned hydrocarbons(UBHCs)
and volatile organic compounds(VOCs). This is contrary
to low-NO
x
burners, where these other emissions often in-
creases in staged combustion. Thermal NO
x
in ULNBs are
reduced by using FlGR. A typical industrial boiler appli-
cation will require the use of 25-30% FlGR to reach sub-10
ppm NO
x
operation. Unlike in low-NO
x
burners, increas-
ing excess air, reduces NO
x
formation in ultralow-NO
x
6

(a)

(b)
Figure 9: (a) Rapid mix Burner Schematic, (b) Ultra-low NO
x
Burner [2].
burners. This is because theses burners employ premix-
ing or near-perfect mixing and thus the fuel already has
access to all of the oxygen required at the ignition point.
Increasing excess air just helps in reducing the peak ame
temperatures and, therefore, excess air has the same cool-
ing eect as FlGR (Figure 10). Mosiewicz et al. [10] dis-
cusses an air-staged and internal recirculation ULNB that
reduces NO
x
emissions to sub-10 ppmv.
The ultralow-NO
x
burner can also be operated with
preheated combustion air to increase the eciency, and
still retain single digit NO
x
emissions performance, by in-
creasing the FlGR rate to compensate for the higher air
temperature. Ultralow-NO
x
burner gives extremely stable
and very short ame. This eliminates the potential for
ame impingement, a common problem experienced with
low-NO
x
burners.
5. Conclusion
Low-NO
x
and ultralow-NO
x
burners are an integral
part of any industry dealing with combustion of fossil fu-
els. Because of several health and environmental hazards
of nitrogen oxides and tightening of norms, new research in

Figure 10: Eect of FlGR vs. Air preheat on Ultralow-NO
x
burners
[2].
the designs of ultralow-NO
x
burners are being done around
the world.
References
[1] Charles E. Baukal,Jr, Industrial Combustion Pollution and Con-
trol, , 2004, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York.
[2] Charles E. Baukal,Jr, Industrial Burners Handbook, 2004, CRC
Press.
[3] Adel F. Sarom and Richard C. Flagan, NO
x
Control for sta-
tionary combustion sources, Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. Vol. 2,
pp. I 25, 1976, Pergamon Press.
[4] Janos M. Beer, Minimizing NO
x
emissions from stationary com-
bustion; Reaction engineering methodology, Chemical Enoineer-
ing Science, Vol. 49, No. 24A, pp. 4067-4083, 1994.
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book, 2
nd
edition, Volume-1, Fundamentals, 2013, CRC press.
[6] W. Michael Sutton and Edward N. Ziegler , NO
x
Control
strategies and legislation, International Journal of Environmental
Studies, 52:1-4, 207-241.
[7] Environmental standards for ambient air, automobiles, fuels, in-
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Goverment of India.
[8] A. Garg, Specify better low-NO
x
burners for furnaces, Chemical
Engineering Progress, pp 46-49, 1994.
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nd
edition, Volume-2, Design and Operations, 2013, CRC
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[10] Pawel Mosiewicz, Peter Porshnev, Sergei Nester, Lawrence
A. Kennedy, Alexander Fridman, J. Rabovitser and D. Cygan
(2000) Study of Low-Temperature Combustion in a Low-NO
x
Burner, Combustion Science and Technology, 160:1, 1-21
7