The report gives results of a study of the feasibility of commercializing optimum oil burner head technology developed earlier for EPA. The study included: selecting the best commercial method for fabricating optimum heads; determining that prototype simulated-production heads could reproduce an earlier research head's beneficial results; and testing prototype heads as retrofit devices in two commercial residential furnaces. A one-piece stamped and folded design was evolved and prototype commercial heads were fabricated. Research combustion chamber tests showed these to be equivalent to the earlier research head. Tested as retrofit replacements for stock burner heads in two new warm-air oil furnaces, the prototype heads were found to be operationally satisfactory and potentially durable and long-lived. It was estimated that widespread retrofitting of old residential units could increase mean season-averaged thermal efficiency (averaged over those units retrofitted) by about 5% and simultaneously reduce NOx emissions from these sources by about 20%. Logistics of a retrofit program, training for service personnel, and requirements to ensure meeting codes and standards were not resolved.

Prepared by Rockwell International Corporation, Rocketdyne Division, Canoga Park, Calif., under contract no. 68-02-1888, ROAP no. 21BCC-058, program element no. 1AB014. Includes appendices. Bibliographies: pages 77-78, 91.