CFD modelling in process burner development:: Combustion of light residual fuel oils

New process burner systems have been developed at the Department of Heat and Mass Transfer (RWTH Aachen) on behalf of OMV AG and in cooperation with industrial partners since 1997. The systems allow a clear reduction of NOx emission at the combustion of light residual fuel oil compared to conventional burner technology. By means of numerous CFD computations of the present burner system with the software code CFX 4 the phenomena important for the practice were investigated. A special emphasis was drawn to the interaction between flow field and the reaction of the combustible. To model the,phenomena of turbulence, the RNG k-epsilon model was used. Furthermore methane replaced the liquid fuel oil to reduce the necessary CPU time. The results of the computations carried out could improve the understanding of the phenomena found in practice.