Combustion

Combustion technologies are nowadays irreplaceable issues in the production of semi-fabricated and fabricated products (e.g. boilers, furnaces and other process heaters).

Burners’ aim is to lower the emissions of both NOx, CO and unburned hydrocarbons, while achieving high thermal efficiency with different kinds of feed fuels and without any post combustion controls - a need that requires advanced materials and enabling technologies.

In this respect, our Combustion Station covers a broad spectrum of offers, from fundamental investigation of innovative combustion processes to their application in different industrial sectors.

Our remarkable role in combustion technologies is highlighted by the partnership with the International Flame Research Foundation (IFRF).

Deliverables

Thanks to a long scientific tradition and the availability of modern equipment, our combustion technological offer ranges from the complete and accurate characterization of industrial burners to the development, design and engineering of new equipment.

More in detail:

• R&D on new burners from conceptual design to prototype characterization based on flameless and regenerative technologies
• Thermal and fluid dynamics experiments, measured data analysis and their interpretation
• Application of reliable methodologies for scaling-up and -down of existing components and systems
• Development of lateral roof burners and high impulse burners and radiant tube for ferrous and non-ferrous industrial sectors
• Characterization of burner subsystems
• Study and analysis of interaction of furnace environment and product (i.e. oxidation, decarburization phenomena, etc.);
• Thermal and Fluid dynamics modelling developable in Fluent.

Focus on labs & facilities

The Combustion Technological Laboratory is endowed with medium- and full-sized facilities, permitting us to simulate any aspect of industrial heating and combustion topics:

• Furnace n. 1 - devoted to studies of gas flame, this facility has been conceived to satisfy flexibility criteria
• Furnace n. 2 - normally employed for characterizing small burners, studying interaction phenomena between product surfaces and working atmospheres and in testing ceramic honeycomb recuperators
• Furnace n. 3 - this equipment, whose maximum power supply is 100 kW, is designed to run radiant burner tests
• Furnace n. 4 - devoted to the simulation of direct reduction processes.