What is Flameless Combustion?

A Combustion File downloaded from the IFRF Online Combustion Handbook

ISSN 1607-9116
Combustion File No: 171
Version No: 1
Date: 15-04-2002
Author(s): Ambrogio Milani and Joachim Wnning
Source(s): See CF
Referee(s): Neil Fricker
Status: Published
Sponsor: WS GmbH

1. Background conventional flame firing

In conventional combustion systems, a flame is formed in the stream of a combustible
mixture of fuel and oxidant provided a steady flame front can be established. The
sharp gradient of temperature and chemical composition across the flame front brings
about a balance between fast chain-reactions due to high temperature, and quenching
due to convection. Flame stabilisation is typically obtained by re-circulating hot and
reactive combustion products and by favouring steep temperature and composition
gradients. This is often achieved by fluid dynamic means (bluff body, swirl etc).
In the stationary flame front attached or close to the burner, optical and electrical
effects can be detected and exploited for flame supervision. Examples are UV emission
or ionisation detection. A picture of temperature and of OH radical distribution in a
conventional flame is reported in the upper half of Figure 1. The presence of a visible
flame also gives indications to the furnace operator that all is well (or not as the case
may be) with the combustion system.
In conventional flames, local gas temperatures can be quite high, approaching adiabatic
values in cases where the reaction occurs before there is considerable mixing with the
furnace atmosphere surrounding the flame. Typical values are illustrated in the upper
left quadrant of Figure 1: adiabatic temperatures for rich fuels easily range from
1800 C to well above 2000 C, which can be observed in the hottest peak temperatures
close to the flame front. Hot peak temperatures help effectively to stabilize the flame,
but are the principle cause of the formation of nitrogen oxides in flames by the thermal
NO route and also cause unwanted non-uniformity of heat transfer rate.
 Figure 1 Temperature and OH concentration from laser diagnostic techniques
(upper half flame mode, lower half flameless mode)

2. Flameless combustion and its benefits

The flame-front combustion mode is the predominant firing mode in many industrial
applications. It also occurs in natural and artificial fires. This mode is not, however, the
only way of producing controlled combustion within a combustion chamber. In a high
temperature chamber (reactants temperature > 850 C) and preferably using
preheated air, a flameless combustion mode has been identified by deliberately
suppressing a stable flame front. A comparison between flame and flameless mode is
shown in Figure 2. In flameless mode, reactions take place at temperatures above the
self-ignition temperature, in a distributed large volume instead of being concentrated
into a thin, highly convoluted and stretched flame front (Figure 1 compare upper and
lower half). With flameless combustion, there is no flame front, no visible flame, no UV
or ionisation detection, and no noise or roar. CO and NOx are abated to very small
residual values.
Reactants, at least locally, must be above self-ignition temperature for combustion to
occur. This condition is accounted for in continuous furnaces that run constantly above
850 C (that is well above self-ignition): in such processes, flame supervision may be
dispensed with according to safety rules, as there is no danger of the reaction
extinguishing, and hence no risk of explosion. Therefore, once a process is safely above
the fuels self-ignition temperature, the firing mode can be designed to deliberately
avoid the onset of a burner-stabilised flame-front.
 Figure 2 Flame mode (left) and flameless mode (right)
The stability limits of flameless firing (see CF 173) depend not only on temperature, but
also on dilution of the reactants before combustion. The comburent or the fuel must be
diluted in a large ballast of entrained inert flue gases composed of N2 + residual O2+
CO2 + H2O (the latter two coming from complete combustion itself). This inertisation
of the comburent implies a substantial reduction of the local temperature after reaction
well below the adiabatic temperature of the pure reactants.

3. How do I achieve flameless combustion?

A good example is a high velocity, natural gas burner. In conventional firing, the fuel
and air jets are placed inside a primary chamber to achieve early mixing between fuel
and air and a stable flame. This is illustrated schematically in the upper half of Figure 3
that shows a flame stabilised in a conventional high velocity burner (using cold
combustion air).
In the lower half of Figure 3, fuel is injected into the flue gases within the furnace
space, away from the immediate vicinity of the combustion air. Similarly, combustion air
is injected at high velocity into the chamber in direct contact with combustion products.
Mixing between fuel gas and combustion products and between air and products takes
place before mixing fuel gas and air (the process previously referred to as inertisation)
and tends to bring temperatures close to the combustion products temperature. Then,
provided the latter are above self-ignition temperature, flameless combustion occurs: no
visible flame and no concentrated flame front is formed, but the combustion reactions
occur in a large volume of the furnace space, where they proceed to completion.
It is important to note that the temperature profile is very much smoother in the
flameless case (lower half of Figure 3). This is due to combustion occurring gradually
while entraining more and more exhaust flue gases at process temperature. On the
contrary, when using a conventional flame, there is little opportunity to entrain large
amounts of flue gases upstream of the flame front, and hence to limit the peak
temperatures in the reaction zone (upper half of Figure 3).
In Figure 3, air preheating (see CF172) is assumed for the flameless case (which is a
preferred but not a necessary boundary condition): this is to stress how much the T,
i.e. the difference between minimum and maximum gas temperature, can be affected by
the process. Large Ts imply large non uniformities in the profile of heat flux to the
load, low T means that the system tends to approach a well-stirred reactor at
uniform temperature = Tproc.
The difference shown above is the basis of the exceptionally low NOx emissions of
flameless firing (see CF174). It is also the key to the more widespread use of very
highly preheated air. Air preheat temperatures of the order of 800 1200 C are
possible with decentralised recuperators or with ceramic regenerators (see CF 172).
Flameless operation avoids very high peak-temperatures, occurring in conventional
flames using such high pre-heats, and the risk of local material failures due to high local
peak heat fluxes, while effectively curbing the formation of thermal NOx.

Tflame

T
Conventional flame
and no air preheat
GAS Tproc T

AIR
Tair

T
GAS
Tflameless
Flameless combustion AIR Tproc
T
and air preheat
Tair

Internal flue recirculation

x
Figure 3 High velocity gas burner: flame and flameless firing

The picture of Figure 3 is only one of the flameless firing patterns typical of furnaces
that can be implemented with various arrangements of the air and fuel injection nozzles.
Flameless combustion can be applied to other processes as well (e.g. steam generators,
thermal treatment of refuse, gas turbine combustors etc..): the same basic principles
and stability conditions (CF173) hold true, that is reactants temperature above self-
ignition and dilution with a large ballast to keep down final reaction temperature.
4. What about lean fuels, oil and coal flames?
Flameless combustion is by no means limited to rich gaseous fuels such as natural gas,
but can be applied as well to lean gaseous mixtures (such as fuel gases recovered from
industrial processes) or to liquid and solid fuels. Figure 4 shows, once again by way of
comparison, conventional and flameless firing of heavy oil with preheated, vitiated air.
In the case of Figure 4, right hand side, the inertisation and preheating of reactants,
typical of flameless combustion, are carried out to a large degree, upstream of the
burner because combustion air is vitiated (with inert gases) and preheated. Quite
evidently, reaction steps follow chemistry paths different from the conventional,
burner-stabilised flame and there is no wonder that pollutant formation and heat flux
distribution are quite different. This may be exploited in practice for clean firing
technologies and for improved process performance.

Figure 4 Flame and flameless firing of heavy fuel oil

(left: flame mode, normal air at 250 C - right: flameless, vitiated air O2 10% at 500 C)

5. What are alternative names for flameless combustion?

Flameless combustion is recommended as a non-proprietary generic label identifying the
phenomenon described above. Equivalent expressions are often used in practice, such
as flameless oxidation and FLOX , a registered trademark belonging to the company
WS.
Furthermore, several different expressions are used to identify similar though not
equivalent phenomena and techniques used for the same purposes. Examples of
expressions found in the literature, including commercial trademarks, are:
- HTAC, (High Temperature Air Combustion an unrigorous usage, since high
temperature air combustors are not always flameless and vice-versa)
- mild combustion,
- dilute combustion
- Fuel Direct Injection (FDI a process developed by Tokyo Gas Company)
- and others
Some of these refer to absence of a flame front, others to high air preheating, others
to dilution of the fuel or vitiation of the comburent (O2 contents well below standard
21% by volume) before mixing etc. All these techniques tend to bring about very
reduced T and NOx emissions, and are based on inertisation of the reactants.

Glossary terms
Adiabatic flame temperature Refers to the theoretical flame temperature assuming
no heat losses. It is computed by equating the lower heating value of the fuel to the
enthalpy of combustion products corresponding to a unit mass of fuel and to a known
excess air (but assuming no recirculation).
Bluff-body A solid body, usually axially symmetric, and often with a flat downstream
face, placed in a flow of comburent to create a wake or reverse flow zone for flame
stabilisation.
Comburent - The agent, which supports the combustion of a fuel or combustible, usually
air or oxygen. Although this term is not found in English dictionaries, it has been
adopted (probably adapted from the French comburant) by the IFRF and is used
throughout this handbook. There is no convenient English equivalent
Combustion roar - Generic name given to broad band noise generated by a turbulent
flame
Flue gases Products of combustion at the outlet of the combustion chamber and/or at
the exhaust chimney
Flame front The thin region separating fresh reactants from almost burnt, hot
products: heat and reactive species diffuse back into cold reactants because of the
sharp gradient. This makes up a propagation mechanism competing with the flow field to
set up a steady flame, within suitable conditions
High velocity burner - Burners designed to produce a high velocity (>20m/s) jet of
combustion products, which then stir the furnace atmosphere or enhance convection
Inertisation Adding to the reactants (fuel and air) a large amount of inert gas ballast,
that does not take part into the combustion reaction but does take up its share of
enthalpy and momentum
OH radical The most abundant species of unstable excited molecules, called radicals,
intermediate in combustion chain reactions, before stable combustion products are
obtained
Nitrogen oxides - Gaseous atmospheric pollutant Mixture of oxides of Nitrogen
comprising NO and NO2
NOx - Gaseous atmospheric pollutant - Mixture of oxides of Nitrogen comprising NO
and NO2
Recuperator A heat exchanger used to preheat combustion air thereby recovering
sensible heat from the flue gases; auto-recuperator refers to the circumstance that the
burner is recovering heat from its own flue gases
Regenerator A system for preheating the combustion air by means of a heat reclaiming
bed (honeycomb or pebbled bed etc) alternatively reheated by flue gases and then
cooled by the air during the subsequent cycle
Self-ignition temperature - Lowest temperature at which a fuel-air mixture ignites
spontaneously without an external spark or flame, whereby combustion chain reactions
are self-sustained. The range of ignition temperatures for hydrocarbon fuels is 350
650C.
Swirl - A tangential velocity component can be imparted to air issuing from the burner
nozzle, thereby generating a tangential momentum beside the axial momentum. The
resultant swirling motion affects the near field and the flame stability.
Thermal NO - One of three commonly accepted methods by which nitrogen oxides are
formed in flames. Thermal NO is formed when oxygen and nitrogen mix at high
temperatures. Thermal NO formation is described by the Zeldovich mechanism
Well-stirred reactor - An idealised combustion chamber where chemical reactions and
heat transfer proceed to such a rate that composition and temperature can be assumed
constant throughout the volume

Keywords
Flame; flameless; flame front stabilisation; high temperature air; preheated air; mild
combustion; flox, flameless oxidation; dilute combustion; low NOx; thermal NOx;
Zeldovich; inertisation;

Related Combustion Files

CF172 What is the effect of Air Preheat on Process Efficiency?
CF173 What are the Stability Limits for Flameless Combustion?
CF174 What is the effect of Flameless Combustion on NOx formation?
CF175 What is the effect of Flameless Combustion on Combustion Noise?

Sources
[1] J.A. Wnning, J.G. Wnning: Ten Years of Flameless Oxidation; Technical
Applications and Potentials 4th HTACG Symposium, Rome 26-28 November 2001
[2] T. Plessing, N. Peters, J.G. Wnning: Laseroptic investigation of highly preheated
combustion with strong exhaust gas recirculation - Proc. Comb. Inst., 27,3197-
3204,1998
[3] A. Milani, A. Saponaro: Diluted Combustion Technologies IFRF Combustion Journal
Article 2001-01, February 2001
[4] J. Sudo, T. Hasegawa: Advanced HRS technology and its industrial applications 4th
HTACG Symposium, Rome 26-28 November 2001

Acknowledgements
None

File Placing
[Burners]; [Burner Types]; [Flameless]
[Emissions]; [Nitrogen Oxides]; [Reduction]
[Emissions]; [Nitrogen Oxides]; [Suppression]

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