Burner for operating a heat generator

• US 6,155,820 A
• Filed: 11/17/1998
• Issued: 12/05/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alstom SA
• Original Assignee: ABB Research Ltd. (ABB Limited)
• Inventors: Ruck, Thomas, Knopfel, Hans Peter, Dobbeling, Klaus
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazarus, Ira S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, DAVID B
• Application Number:
  US09/192,531
• Time in Patent Office: 749 Days
• Field of Search: 431/350, 431/351, 431/352, 431/353, 431/8, 431/175, 431/285, 431/174, 431/278, 239/403, 239/568
• US Class Current: 431/350
• CPC Class Codes: F23C 2900/07002 Premix burners with air inlet slots obtained between offset curved wall surfaces, e.g. double cone burners
• CPC Class Codes: F23C 7/002 the air being submitted to a rotary or spinning motion cyclonic combustion chamber F23C3/006
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 11/402 Mixing chambers downstream of the nozzle
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 14/02 Premix gas burners, i.e. in which gaseous fuel is mixed with combustion air upstream of the combustion zone
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 17/002 gaseous or liquid fuel
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 2900/14021 Premixing burners with swirling or vortices creating means for fuel or air

Abstract

In a burner for operating a heat generator, which burner essentially comprises a swirl generator (100), a transition piece (200) arranged downstream of the swirl generator, and a mixing tube (20), transition piece (200) and mixing tube (20) form the mixing section of the burner, this mixing section being arranged upstream of a combustion space (30). In the region of the tangential combustion-air-directing inflow ducts (101b-104b), fuel-directing ducts (121-124), the cross section of flow of which is designed for a low-calorific fuel (116), extend along the swirl generator (100). The fuel-directing ducts (121-124) end at a distance upstream of the transition of the tangential inflow ducts (101b-104b) into an interior space of the swirl generator (100), whereby partial mixing between the two media (115, 117) takes place before the mixture flows into the interior space (118). In addition, this setting-back provides sufficient space for other fuel-directing lines (111-114) in this region.

Claims

1. A burner for preparing a fuel and air mixture for combustion in a heat generator, the burner having a fluid flow direction and comprising a swirl generator having at least two sectional bodies, each sectional body including a tangentially acting inflow duct for the inflow of a combustion-air flow, said tangentially acting inflow duct being oriented so that the flow of the combustion-air is tangent to the fluid flow of the burner, means for injecting at least one fuel into the combustion-air flow, a mixing section being arranged downstream of the swirl generator and having, inside a first part of the mixing section in the direction of the fluid flow, a plurality of transition passages for passing the fluid flow formed in the swirl generator into a mixing tube arranged downstream of these transition passages, wherein a gas fuel-directing duct running in parallel or virtually in parallel to one of said sectional bodies is arranged in fluid communication with at least one tangentially acting inflow duct, and wherein the gas fuel-directing duct ends at a distance greater than zero upstream of the combustion-air flow from the tangentially acting inflow duct into an interior space of the swirl generator.

2. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fuel-directing duct ends with an inflow slot leading into the at least one tangentially acting inflow duct.

3. The burner as claimed in claim 2, wherein the inflow slot is provided with means for aiding a fluid flow from the fuel-directing duct to the at least one tangentially acting inflow duct.

4. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least two sectional bodies are conical and hollow, and are nested one inside the other in the direction of the fluid flow of the swirl generator, wherein respective longitudinal symmetry axes of the sectional bodies run mutually offset in such a way that adjacent walls of the sectional bodies form inflow ducts which are tangential in their longitudinal extent, for the inflow of a combustion-air flow into the interior space of said swirl generator, and wherein further fuel nozzles can be positioned within said burner to take effect in the interior space of said swirl generator formed by the sectional bodies.

5. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the burner can be operated with a low-calorific gaseous fuel via the fuel-directing duct, with a high-calorific gaseous fuel via fuel lines along the transition of the tangential inflow ducts into the interior space of said swirl generator, and with a liquid fuel via a fuel nozzle arranged centrally on an upstream end of the swirl generator.

6. The burner as claimed in claim 4, wherein the sectional bodies have a fixed cone angle, increasing conicity in the direction of fluid flow of the burner.

7. The burner as claimed in claim 4, wherein the sectional bodies are nested spirally one sectional body inside the other sectional body.

8. The burner as claimed in claim 4, wherein the fuel nozzle arranged on a downstream end of said swirl generator is encased by a concentric ring, wherein this ring has a number of bores arranged in a peripheral direction of the ring for injecting a further fuel into an air quality.

9. The burner as claimed in claim 8, wherein the bores are directed so as to slant forward.

10. The burner as claimed in claim 8, wherein the fuel nozzle is surrounded by an annular air chamber.

11. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of transition passages in the mixing section corresponds to the number of sectional bodies forming the swirl generator.

12. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mixing tube arranged downstream of the transition passages is provided with openings for injecting an air flow into the interior of the mixing tube in the fluid flow direction of the burner.

13. The burner as claimed in claim 12, wherein the openings run at an acute angle relative to a central, axial burner axis of the mixing tube.

14. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cross sectional area of the fluid flow along a central, axial burner axis of the mixing tube downstream of the transition passages is less than the cross sectional area of the fluid flow along the central, axial burner axis formed in the swirl generator.

15. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein a combustion space is arranged downstream of the mixing section, wherein there is a stepped increase in cross sectional area along the central, axial burner axis between the mixing section and the combustion space, which stepped increase in cross sectional area induces the initial cross sectional area of a fluid flow of the combustion space, and wherein a backflow zone of the fluid flow of the combustion space can take effect in the region of the stepped increase in cross sectional area.

16. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mixing tube has a breakaway edge on an end adjacent to the combustion space.

17. The burner as claimed in claim 4, wherein the sectional bodies have a fixed cone angle, decreasing conicity in the direction of fluid flow of the burner.

18. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cross sectional area of the fluid flow along a central, axial burner axis of the mixing tube downstream of the transition passages is equal to the cross sectional area of the fluid flow along the central, axial burner axis formed in the swirl generator.

19. The burner as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cross sectional area of the fluid flow along a central, axial burner axis of the mixing tube downstream of the transition passages is greater than the cross sectional area of the fluid flow along the central, axial burner axis formed in the swirl generator.