Studies and Articles
Innovation Magazine - June 2002
Author: Steve Panz, Eric Panz, Joseph Jachniak
Submerged Combustion
Turning Down The Heat On Global Warming
The problem of human-produced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their role in disrupting the world’s climate is widely regarded as the most serious environmental threat facing our planet. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is by far the main contributor to global warming because of the quantities released through human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.While the use of fossil fuels has helped industrialization enormously, there is now 30% more CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere than before the Industrial Revolution.
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Although not the main contributor on a global scale, combustion by industry has been associated with localized high volume and high concentration sources of CO2 emissions. This is especially true for industries characterized by high energy consumption such as the pulp and paper, chemical, gas and petroleum, steel and mineral processing industries.
In addition, the high exhaust temperatures of stack gases (350°F to 2000°F) generated by these industries adds even more heat to the atmosphere. Reducing both CO2 production and high stack exhaust temperatures at the source is a logical step in addressing the GHG pollution and global warming problem, and BC engineers are at the forefront in developing innovative technologies to reduce industrial emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Chief among these is submerged combustion technology, a proprietary heating method that is highly energy efficient, reduces stack exhaust to near ambient temperatures, and is especially suited for heating dirty and corrosive fluids or for evaporative processes.
A Heating Alternative
Canada, with its resource based economy, has some of the largest resource industries in the world. These industries, as heavy users of fossil fuels to heat large volumes of industrial solutions, are continuously seeking ways to both reduce operational costs and comply with environmental emissions regulations. Current conventional methods of industrial liquid heating include steam boilers, thermal oil heaters and immersion tube heaters.
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All rely on indirect heat transfer, where the heating
medium transfers its energy to the liquid
solution via radiation, conduction
and convection.
With conventional methods, not all the available heat energy can be fully absorbed by the solution due to the size and condition of the heat transfer area. In addition, latent heat in the products of combustion is difficult to recover and is usually vented to the atmosphere. These factors result in energy losses of up to 30%. About 27 years ago, when the forest industry in Western Canada began seeking more efficient and reliable methods of plant water heating, Eric Panz Ing (Austria) of Vancouver-based Inproheat Industries began to develop submerged combustion technology, a heating method that currently provides efficiencies of 90-100% and stack exhaust temperatures close to ambient. This increased heating efficiency translates to a 15-30% reduction in fuel consumption and emissions and a 200-300°F reduction in stack temperatures compared to traditional heating methods.
Years of research and development and field experience have led to various performance improvements that have allowed the application of submerged combustion technology, known as Sub- Com™, to a wide range of industries including forest products,copper and gold mining, gas processing, potash mining, natural gas and petroleum, and municipal waste plants. > CONTINUE > |
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