Low calorifique gases

While natural gas is a fundamental component of worldwide energy supply, substances with low heat values such as lean gas represent niche products.

The group of lean gases includes furnace gas, formalin gas, vent gas, corex gas and CO gas. These gases accumulate for example in steel production, in the chemical industry or in other processes and pose great challenges for firing systems.

Unlike natural gas, lean gases frequently consist to a considerable extent of inert gases such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide or steam. The combustible ingredients, for example carbon monoxide or hydrogen, typically make up only about 25% by volume. Their heat value ranges from 2 – 15 MJ/m³, considerably lower than natural gas. This means that significant volumes of gas are needed to replace natural gas firing. Furthermore, because these gases are usually available at only a very low pump pressure, lean gases often cannot be utilized thermally. Instead they are flared off.

An SSB-LCG from the SSB swirl burner series is available for economical utilization of lean gases. It was specially developed for low-caloric gases and combusts even gases with a heat value of just 2 MJ/m³ reliably and without an expensive support fuel. The burner also features a low pressure requirement of only 10 mbar.