By June of 2014, the world's first flameless refinery heater located in Coffeyville, Kansas will have been operating in the flameless mode for over one year. At the A&WMA annual conference in June, Great Southern Flameless (GSF) will proudly present over one year's worth of actual operating and performance data along with photos and video from this first flameless crude heater operation. Based on a Consent Decree with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Coffeyville Resources purchased the flameless crude heater for their Coffeyville, KS refinery. This is a demonstration heater to prove that flameless technology is commercially viable for achieving selective catalytic reduction (SCR) level nitrous oxide (NO_x) emissions in the refining industry. The timeline for the project began on January 23rd, 2012 with the first flameless heater purchase order and the heater was shipped at the beginning of October, 2012. Installation, instrumentation and controls ran a bit over the planned schedule with commissioning/start-up commencing in late February, 2013, and the first flameless firing documented on April 22, 2013. While high temperature air combustion (HTAC) and flameless combustion are not at all new concepts, they are both new to the direct fired process heater industry. GSF's flameless crude heater can be run both conventionally and in flameless mode with a predicted 3-8 ppmvd NO_x without a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) process. The flameless combustion heater will meet the process radiant flux requirements, increase efficiency and reduce emissions during normal operations. GSF has developed this revolutionary flameless technology which utilizes HTAC for maximum efficiency (91% lower heating value (LHV)) and carbon dioxide (CO_2) reduction yet the flameless combustion process produces NO_x levels which have previously only been achievable with an SCR. The cost of this system is equivalent to a conventional double fired heater with a conventional balanced draft air preheat system. Great Southern Flameless combustion technology has now been commercially proven in a refinery environment and is approved by the EPA for consent decree NO_x compliance. With the flexibility of being able to seamlessly transition back and forth between flameless and conventional combustion, there is zero risk to meeting production goals and process heat requirement.
展开▼
