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EVALUATION OF THE EFFICIENCY OF INDUSTRIAL FLARES: FLARE HEAD DESIGN AND GAS COMPOSITION
Citation:
Pohl, J. AND N. Soelberg. EVALUATION OF THE EFFICIENCY OF INDUSTRIAL FLARES: FLARE HEAD DESIGN AND GAS COMPOSITION. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/2-85/106.
Description:
The report gives continued Phase 4 results of a research program to quantify emissions from, and efficiencies of, industrial flares. Initial results were limited to tests conducted burning propane/nitrogen mixtures in pipe flares without pilot light stabilization. The work reported here extends the previous results to other flare head designs and other gases and includes a limited investigation of the influence of pilot flames on flare performance. Results included: (1) flare head design influences the flame stability curve, (2) combustion efficiency can be correlated with flame stability for pressure heads and coanda steam injection heads; (3) for the limited conditions tested, flame stability and combustion efficiency of air-assisted heads correlated with the momentum ratio of air to fuel (the heating value of the gas had only minor influence), (4) limited data on an air-assisted flare show that a pilot light improves flame stability, (5) the destruction efficiency of compounds depends on the structure of the compounds, and (6) for compounds tested in this program, the destruction efficiency of different compounds could be correlated with the flame stability curve for each.