How to achieve flexibility with combustion, a good level of energy autonomy and cost savings for manufacturing companies. 

Alessio Visentin, R&D Director of Baltur, offers a look at the direction of energy autonomy through conversion and diversification of industrial combustion.

For some ten years now, Baltur has been supplying its customers with Biogas/Syngas burners for the production of heat and hot water.

The company has recently developed a line dedicated to medium-power Gas/Biogas multi-fuel burners – from 800 up to 3600 kW - for industrial applications, where Biogas is the main fuel. This is derived from fermentation plants using vegetation or waste biomasses, which usually can be found around the plant itself. When the Biogas supply runs out, the burner starts running on Gas, LPG or Methane/Syngas. These multi-fuel burners are available in both manual and automatic versions, equipped with a pressure sensor on the Biogas line that provides “alerts” when Biogas production is insufficient, stops the system and restarts gas combustion. 

Now Baltur Application Engineering is developing a new series of burners capable of burning gaseous and liquid fuels together. 

Alessio Visentin, Baltur R&D Director, tells us about it. 

Conversion and diversification of industrial combustion. 

When gas started to cost EUR 2 per cubic metre, energy-intensive companies faced an exponential increase in the production costs of their raw material. They therefore turned to the idea of using their finished product, and the raw material generated in production, to make fuel oil. 

Many of these companies have approached Baltur to request the design of special plants, capable of running on gas and oil in alternating mode, i.e. 100% gas or 100% oil, or in mixing fuel mode, i.e. capable of burning a certain amount of gaseous and liquid fuel at the same time, e.g. 50% gas and 50% oil of different types. 

Latest special plants completed 

Baltur has recently built two special mixed plants, capable of burning different types of oil and offering a viable alternative to gas. 

The first plant was built for a major industrial group in northern Italy, active in primary agro-food processing, for the production of flours, oils and lecithins, derived from oilseeds (soya, sunflower and rapeseed) and cereals (maize, wheat, barley), for applications in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, animal nutrition, technical and energy sectors.
Given the rising cost of gas, the Group considered using its finished product and raw material to produce fuel oil. 

Baltur therefore built a new plant consisting of two multi-fuel burners – with power ranges from 2,340 kW to 16,000 kW – fired with refined or raw soya oil and natural gas.
Burners equipped with: Inverter to reduce electrical power consumption, active combustion control system to optimise efficiency, FGR system to reduce NOx emissions (in oil operation) and the Baltur EMS Emission Monitoring System.  In this way, the company can use its product by supporting its production processes, with the aim of achieving full gas substitution. 

The second special plant was built for a large company in the Vicenza tanning industry, which processes leather tanning residues into protein hydrolysates, for major players in the agro-chemical and industrial sectors, used as biostimulants in agriculture and retardants in the gypsum industry.

The company’s need was to replace the use of methane gas with a more economical fuel, ensuring significant flexibility in terms of fuel use and maximising the economic savings in the industrial processes.
The waste, which was very complicated to deal with, required special experimentation and customisation. The material produced – processed, refined and purified – undergoes a transesterification process, which transforms the raw material into biofuel.

The plant built by Baltur is able to alternately burn methane gas and biofuel, derived from the transesterification of animal fat, and to burn both at the same time and in different percentages. 

TBMN 1600 ME V O2 PG FGR series 

The two burners are part of the TBMN 1600 ME V O2 PG FGR series. 

They are equipped with Inverter and O2 control, Electronic Modulation, Gas Pilot (PG) and a Flue Gas Recirculation (FGR) system to reduce NOx emissions. This type of plant, with a capacity of 16,000 kW per individual machine, can alternately burn methane gas and biofuel derived from different products or waste, even at the same time and in different percentages, offering maximum flexibility and significant economic savings. 

The innovation of these plants lies in the possibility of mixing two fuels at the same time. This allows the burning of traditional and alternative gases, exploiting the company’s own waste, according to the customer’s needs. 

Special Baltur burners 

For special orders, the Baltur Application Engineering department has samples of the waste oil sent to its R&D Laboratories for combustion tests, emission analysis and further control.
In particular, emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, CO₂ and CO are analysed, and external specialised laboratories are consulted to analyse other parameters, such as: PM5 and PM10, TOC (Total Organic Carbon), VOC (Volatile Organic Carbon) and SO₂ (Sulphur Dioxide). 

In addition to offering consultation on the feasibility study, design and customisation of burners, Baltur can therefore provide the customer with guarantees that the flue gases released into the atmosphere are no more polluting than hydrocarbons and that emissions comply with regulations.   

Thermal energy production from industrial waste 

The new plants developed at the Baltur Application Engineering department make it possible to be very flexible, reduce production costs, exploit industrial waste and make it available for the production of thermal energy, without using methane, or even eliminate industrial waste. 

This is the case of one of the latest special plants built, capable of eliminating toxic gaseous effluents from chemical processes that would otherwise have to be flared, and thus subject to the Seveso Directive (96/82/EC) and continuous monitoring. 

In this case, Baltur has developed a system that allows toxic gases to be burnt in the boiler’s combustion chamber, safely, without resorting to systems such as torches. 

Baltur has also built other plants – in Italy and China – where gaseous wastes and hydrocarbon mixtures are used as fuels, again recovering waste to satisfy industrial processes.
The waste gas – which has a certain calorific value – is then used as fuel, instead of or together with methane, making the entire production process more efficient and reducing costs. 

This new generation of burners makes it possible to generate thermal energy using alternative or green fuels, optimising combustion and efficiency for companies, to which Baltur offers itself as a reliable partner that provides support when making choices – not only in terms of the product – but also with regards to how best to manage it, how to design and customise the plants, how to use the fuel, so that the customer feels protected, supported and guaranteed. 

Read about 7 Reasons to Install a Baltur Burner in our previous article.