Burner Working Principle and Types

A burner is a mechanical device used to control the mixture of air and fuel so that when the mixture burns, the flame can also be maintained for the time required for the task. Combustion is a high-temperature exothermic redox reaction between a fuel and an oxidant to produce gaseous products as well as heat and light energy.

 

A burner is a mechanical device used to control the mixture of air and fuel so that when the mixture burns, the flame can also be maintained for the time required for the task. Combustion is a high-temperature exothermic redox reaction between a fuel and an oxidant to produce gaseous products as well as heat and light energy. Essentially, a burner is a device used to maintain a combustion reaction to heat a fluid or to perform an endothermic chemical reaction or to convert a liquid into steam, etc.

 

The commonly used lamp head in the laboratory is called a Bunsen burner. It is just a tube connected to a fuel supply. The fuel is gaseous in nature. The flow of the fuel supply is regulated by a valve, usually a needle valve. When the valve is opened, the gas flows through the tube. The gas leaving the tube can be ignited, and once ignited, a flame will appear at the top as the gas begins to burn. The gas only burns at the top of the tube, not inside the tube, because only at the top of the tube is there enough oxygen. It is a convenient and simple device used for heating, sterilization and combustion tasks in laboratory-scale processes.

 

Industrial burners are essentially larger and more complex. Some of the typical types are:

Air staged burner

All the fuel is mixed with a certain amount of air through the internal air injectors, and then the air is supplied in stages from the external air injectors, depending on the needs of the combustion process.

Regenerative burners

They use a pair of burners that operate together to increase the thermal efficiency of the system. The exhaust gases from one burner are used to heat the air that is about to be burned in the other burner and vice versa. Therefore, they operate in an alternating cycle.

Self-regenerative burner

This burner is installed with a recovery function. The exhaust gases are pulled back through the heating device and the incoming air is heated by the exhaust gases.

Radiant tube burner

All previous burners have a fuel and air mixture that is burned in the presence of a load (raw material). In radiant tube burners, the combustion process takes place in a tube, which acts as a boundary that separates the fuel-air mixture and the load. The heat is transferred to the load by radiation.

Burner Management System (BMS)

A burner management system is a system used to manage the startup, operation, and shutdown of industrial burners to keep them running safely. It is able to manage any equipment that uses flames, such as furnaces, boilers, etc. The system manages flames, igniters, burners and actuators.

 

 

The burner management system primarily performs the following functions:

It prevents equipment from starting until certain permissible interlocks are first completed, and it can also prohibit starting if certain required conditions are not met;

It prevents equipment from igniting unless and until satisfactory purge is completed;

When a combustion operation is started, it conditionally maintains it only if certain safety interlocks are met;

It can detect unsafe operating conditions and even prevent them;

Provide status information and data logging of various components to the control room.