BURNER TECHNOLOGY

I Progressive burning
by Pillard Feuerungen GmbH, Germany Pillard was founded in 1920 by the brothers A and M Pillard. At first, the company concentrated on fuel oil burning techniques, in particular for marine boilers. Very soon Pillard developed automatic control devices of the progressive modulation type which helped to make the best possible use of solid and liquid fuels for industrial burners. These burners were mainly used for the cement and glass industries and more generally for calcination, roasting and other heat treatment processes.
Petcoke inlet, DN 250, 14,000kg/h Axial air connection, DN400 Radial air connection, DN350 Solid waste inlet, DN150, 9000kg/h Swirl air connection for solid waste, DN100 Heavy fuel oil connection, 11,300kg/h Waste oil connection, 9170kg/h Central and cooling air connection, DN200 Natural gas inlet, DN300, 6.240Nm3/h
Figure 1: a large ROTAFLAM burner with a thermal capacity of 125MW for a Holcim plant in Mexico

steady expansion and new fields of activity, including natural gas firing, hot gas and hot oil generators were added to the company as Pillard expanded: 1957, Pillard Germany (Pillard Feuerungen GmbH) founded 1988, Pillard Spain (Pillard Espana SA) founded 1994, opening of an office for Pillard (EGCI) in Beijing, China 1997, opening of an office for Pillard (EGCI) in Milan, Italy. Today, Pillard comprises a team of more than 280 people, 150 of which are graduate engineers, ready to serve all industrial companies requiring heat for their process or product. Over 50 commissioning engineers worldwide are taking care of the proper installation,

testing and long-term operation of all the burners and equipment which are delivered. Also a highly efficient spare parts and after sales service is in place in order to serve client requirements. For big projects, such as the complete fuel conversion for an entire cement plant, special taskforce teams are available.

Rotary kiln burner

One of Pillards main products is the rotary kiln burner for the cement, limestone and mineral industry. Nowadays a rotary kiln burner must be a very flexible, multi-fuel firing tool. In the past, the standard equipment was a three-channel burner, called a 'VR' burner with a coal channel between the axial and radial air channel. The first burner of this type was produced in the early 1970s, when long, wet rotary kilns were popular. The first real rotary kiln burner from Pillard Feuerungen GmbH was delivered to the Karl kiln of Buderus cement factory in Wetzlar. Within the last decade, optimisation of the combustion behaviour and quality of the clinker produced in rotary kilns have become an important point for the main
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New orders
Large turnkey contracts continue to be received by the company. Recently, Pillard Feuerungen GmbH successfully carried out the conversion of three kilns at Yanbu Cement Company in Saudi Arabia from crude oil to heavy fuel oil firing in 2003, and more recently received the order for the conversion of six kilns at the Yamama Cement Company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from crude oil to natural gas firing.

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Figure 2: ROTAFLAM burner tip

Axial air channel Radial air channel Petcoke channel Natural gas gun outlet Solid waste jacket tube with swirler Heavy fuel oil pipes Waste oil pipe

main flame, leading to the occurrence of CO at the kiln inlet. To solve this problem, Pillard developed a patented solution (European patent n99 430010) which has been successfully tested at several sites. A portion of the primary air is guided in a separate jacket tube around the main waste fuel tube and then, just near the outlet, injected in rotation via nozzles around the waste fuel stream in order to expand and aerate the fuel jet.
Figure 4: ROTAFLAM calciner burner for Hoang Ma, Vietnam

cement and lime producers. This resulted in the development of the new multi-fuel burners, which allow several fuel types to be fired from the burner centre, surrounded by two air streams in order to control the flame shape.

Alternative fuels
Taking in to account the increasing demand for burning alternative and waste fuels, the Pillard ROTAFLAM burner makes the application of alternative fuel firing easy, says Pillard. Indeed, injection is efficiently carried out in the heart of the flame from jacket pipes fitted in the central hub and equipped with proprietary devices allowing to shorten and adjust flames. The burner in Figure 1 and 2 is designed to fire coal, natural gas, oil and various alternative fuels simultaneously with a substitution rate of 80 per cent. It has a total length of 17,500mm, an inside kiln length of 10,000mm and an outside pipe diameter (excluding refractory) of 762mm. Some cement companies are already able to operate at 100 per cent capacity firing only secondary fuels, either liquid or solid. Solid waste fuels must be shredded and prepared in such a way that the particles are of limited dimensions. Tests have shown the difficulty of igniting some solid waste fuel types in the
ICR FEBRUARY 2004

Figure 3: the production manager of Holcim Eclpens with the new ROTAFLAM burner, ready for installation

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Eclpens cement plant, Holcim

Holcims two cement plants of Untervaz and Eclpens in Switzerland, burn 100 per cent alternative fuels in their kilns. The Eclpens cement plant is equipped with a ROTAFLAM burner, with a thermal capacity of 70MW. This burner replaced the previous three-channel burner in May 2002 and was the only change made. After installation and commissioning there was an observation period of one month with 100 per cent waste fuel firing. During this time the following observations were made: the flame was short and under control mixing between the primary air and the waste fuels was improved compared to the previous burner the coating was very stable the kiln shell temperature remain unchanged. The used waste fuels were animal meal and dried sludge (4000kg/h), oil

impregnated saw dust (4000kg/h), animal grease (4000kg/h), solvent (1500kg/h), waste oil (1500kg/h) and contaminated water (500kg/h). The benefits attributed by Holcim due to the change of the burner were as follows: outlet temperature of the fourth cyclone was reduced by 35C no more plugging in the preheater tower due to lower sulphur content kiln output increased by six per cent with 100 per cent waste fuel firing no increase of CO at kiln feed inlet, even with 100 per cent waste fuel firing.

Hoang Mai, FCB-Ciment

Another ROTAFLAM burner application is in the precalciner field. For the FCB plant at Hoang Mai, Vietnam, Pillard France delivered a vertical ROTAFLAM burner for firing anthracite coal (100 per cent). This 4000tpd kiln was commissioned in September 2001, started production in

February 2002 and is currently running at 4100tpd continuously. Figure 4 shows the vertical ROTAFLAM calciner burner with a thermal capacity of 50MW. The examples above reflect the tailor-made burner design by Pillard, focussing on the peculiarities of each project. Due to the high cost ratio between the fuel and clinker production costs and due to the specific reduction of CO2 emissions, the substitution of regular fuels by alternative fuels is continuously increasing. In order to supply the market with a flexible kiln burner, Pillard is working closely with both the specialists from technical centres of cement and lime producers and with the kiln operators and production managers. The performance results of over 200 new burners since 2000 confirm that the improved ROTAFLAM multi-fuel burner is an excellent tool to fulfil customers demands, say Pillard. ________________ I