Ethylene Furnace Burners

(and other SC-1 Developments)

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ethylene Furnace Burners (and latest SC-1 Developments)

♦ Ethylene Furnace Burner Requirements

ƒ Safety, process, environmental, maintenance

♦ Development of the ExxonMobil LN2-C Burner

ƒ Predecessor burner
ƒ Development techniques

♦ Performance of the LN2-C Burner

ƒ In the test furnace
ƒ In commercial furnaces

♦ Continued SC-1 Furnace Development

ƒ Larger capacity furnaces

♦ Performance levels described in this paper reflect historical performance

achieved by ExxonMobil Chemical using SC-1 furnaces. Performance
predictions, and where appropriate, guarantees for potential third-party SC-1
furnace projects will be provided by KBR, and will reflect project-specific
operating conditions.

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Ethylene Furnace Burner Requirements: Safe Operation

♦ Burner stability is typically good at normal operating conditions

ƒ High ethylene furnace firebox temperatures favor stable combustion
ƒ Typical olefin plant tail-gas (10 – 70 vol.% H2) favors stable combustion

♦ Furnace start-up is a time of particular importance

ƒ Firebox is cold and air-rich
ƒ Draft may be higher than normal (ID fan unloaded)
ƒ Fuel-gas pressure may swing

♦ Stability also required on start-up / back-up fuel compositions

ƒ Methane / natural-gas has slower flame speed (no hydrogen content)
ƒ Sometimes must design for ethane or propane as back-up fuel

♦ What we need:
ƒ Stability on a cold, natural-gas start-up in an air rich environment
ƒ Remain stable as the furnace transitions to high temperature, low excess-O2

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ethylene Furnace Burners: Process Performance

♦ Heat release profile that complements coil TMT profile

ƒ SC-1 coils particularly well suited to 100% floor firing
ƒ Lower process / higher flue-gas temperatures low in the firebox.
ƒ Higher process / lower flue-gas temperatures higher in the firebox
ƒ Result: Good use of available radiant coil surface area.

♦ “Stiff” flames to resist down-flow currents created by “cold” radiant tubes

ƒ Requires careful design of firebox dimensions
ƒ Higher jet momentum entering firebox is clearly an advantage
ƒ Failure equals “flame roll-over” leading to flame impingement and high local TMT’s

♦ Tolerance to orifice fouling important

ƒ All olefins plants have some detectable olefin concentration in fuel-gas
ƒ Best arrangements have large diameter spuds.
ƒ Fouling rates accelerated in spuds exposed to direct radiant heat.

♦ Low-NOx operation
ƒ High firebox temperatures of ethylene furnaces favor NOx production

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Ethylene Furnace Burners: NOx Minimization Techniques

♦ Combustion staging (staged-fuel or staged-air)

ƒ Primary combustion zone fuel-air or fuel-rich…lower flame temperature…some heat radiated
away from flame before secondary combustion zone.
ƒ Staged-fuel implies multiple small diameter orifices, often exposed to radiant heat.
ƒ Staged-fuel implies primary combustion zone is air-rich at normal firing conditions…more so at
light-off.

♦ Flue-gas recirculation (FGR)

ƒ Adds diluents to flame…lowers flame temperature
ƒ Key is achieving high FGR rates at low cost and high reliability

♦ Steam-Injection
ƒ Highly effective if mixed with fuel (well documented in combustion literature)
ƒ Low impact on NOx if mixed with air but not well mixed with fuel
ƒ Low pressure steam often available at low cost in a olefins plant , particularly liquid crackers.
ƒ Key to success: safe method of mixing steam with fuel-gas.

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ethylene Furnace Burners: Floor Firing Advantages

♦ Operator convenience
ƒ All burner adjustments and maintenance possible from grade
ƒ With good access, burners are more likely to be adjusted when required.
ƒ No requirement to be up on the furnace when lighting off at start-up.

♦ Design flexibility and cost-effectiveness

ƒ Minimizes duct-work costs for air-preheat/gas-turbine exhaust applications.
ƒ Limits fuel-gas pipework to furnace floor area
ƒ Permits use of large capacity burners…minimizes number of burners required.

♦ Consistent with low NOx requirements for SC-1 coils

ƒ All burners see same draft…permits consistent air flow to all burners
ƒ Primary flame “sees” cooler section of radiant tubes…the lower the temperature of the heat
sink the flame sees, the lower the NOx levels.

♦ Requirement: Burner should not be prone to flame roll-over

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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LN2-C Burner Development: The Starting Point (LN1-C)

Secondary
Combustion
Staged
Air FGR
Air

Primary Furnace
Combustion
Floor

Secondary
Air
Air

Primary Air

Fuel
Gas

Ref: US Patent 5,092,761

US Patent 4,629,413
© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LN2-C Burner Development: The Starting Point (LN1-C)

♦ LN1-C Burner
ƒ Staged-air, flue-gas recirculation burner with optional steam injection
ƒ “Partial premix” design: Venturi provides FGR driving force.
ƒ Venturi provides location for safely mixing steam with fuel.
• Low pressure steam acceptable.

♦ Key burner attributes

ƒ High momentum from tip (~ 300 ft/sec, 91 m/s) keeps flame stiff and
vertical
ƒ Single large diameter fuel spud, not exposed to radiant firebox.
• Low fouling potential
ƒ Staged-air design. Primary combustion zone is fuel rich
• Moves towards stoichiometric at start-up…stable burner light-off.
ƒ Easy to maintain. Burner spud can be dropped with furnace in
operation.
♦ NOx levels:
ƒ In range of 0.08 – 0.10 lb/MBtu (HHV) (140 – 180 mg/Nm3) with no
steam injection.
ƒ Down to 0.05 lb/MBtu (HHV) (90 mg/Nm3) with steam injection.
♦ In commercial use in numerous ExxonMobil and KBR SC-
1 furnaces.
© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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LN2-C Burner Development: New Burner Goals

♦ Overall Aim: Keep desirable attributes of LN1-C and reduce NOx by

50%
♦ To achieve this, we focused on several areas:
♦ Increase flue-gas recirculation ratio
ƒ Achieved via improved venturi design and flow path optimization
ƒ FGR increased from ~ 8% to region of 16 – 20%
♦ Improved control of air-fuel ratio in primary combustion zone
ƒ Achieved via modified tip geometry
ƒ Provided reduced NOx emissions while increasing burner stability
♦ Provide better mixed streams at key locations within the burner
ƒ Eliminated high O2 concentrations that lead to high local NOx production.
♦ Prevented unwanted O2 from firebox recirculation patterns from
entering primary flame
ƒ Reason for refractory ring around burner tile
ƒ Ring provided “bonus” of increased burner stability with no additional NOx
production.
© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LN2-C Burner Development: Results

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

5
LN2-C Burner Development: Results

0.09
New Burner , Test Furnace - Ambient Air

0.08 New Burner , Test Furnace - 350F Preheated

Air
New Burner, Commercial Ethylene Furnace,
350F preheated Air
0.07 Previous Generation burner, Commercial
Ethylene Furnace, Ambient Air
NOx (lb/MBtu HHV)

0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03

0.02
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
deNOx Steam (lb/MBtu LHV)

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

LN2-C Burner Development: Results

♦ Target NOx reduction, reproduced in commercial SC-1 coils.
ƒ Demonstrated 0.025 lb/MBtu (HHV) (45 mg/Nm3), ambient air with steam injection
ƒ Demonstrated 0.035 lb/MBtu (HHV) (62 mg/Nm3), 350 F air preheat, with steam
injection.
♦ Burner stability equal to or better than LN1-C
ƒ NOx reduction achieved with no reduction stability margins.
ƒ Burner has been deployed both with and without pilots
♦ Extremely quiet burner
ƒ Noise measured at < 80dBA at 1m, in single burner test
♦ Technology commercialized in two burner capacities:
ƒ Up to 6.5 MBtu/hr (LHV) (1.9 MW)
ƒ Up to 8.5 MBtu/hr (LHV) (2.5 MW)…this burner successfully test fired at 10 MBtu/hr
(2.9 MW)
ƒ In service in numerous ExxonMobil SC-1 furnaces in Baytown, Singapore.
♦ Numerous US Patents granted, including 6,877,980
♦ Burner available to industry through KBR SCORE furnace technology.

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6
SC-1 Furnace Technology: Continued Development

♦ New, very large

capacity SC-1 furnace
recently commissioned
ƒ Firing capacity: 525
MBtu/hr (LHV), 154 MW
ƒ 64 high capacity LN2-C
burners
ƒ 8-pass furnace, 40
radiant tubes per pass

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Thank you very much…

Questions?

© 2008 KBR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.