Abstract:
A method for burning liquid fuels, wherein an amount of total combustion air required for burning is introduced into the liquid fuel in the form of small air bubbles to provide a highly variable overall heat output, particularly at least within a range of one to fifty times the amount of heat output in a similar system, where the liquid fuel/air mixture produced is at least 10 bar. The combustion air is intermittently fed to an injection nozzle protruding into a combustion chamber and is atomized there to produce an explosion at a constant injection pressure. The duration of each of the liquid fuel/air mixtures introduced with each fuel injection pulse is kept constant at a desired value and the total amount of the liquid fuel/air mixture injected per time unit is adjusted between constant fuel injection pulses by varying the duration. The remaining amount of the combustion air is introduced in the combustion chamber through an air nozzle annularly surrounding the port of the injection nozzle.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The present invention concerns a new method for burning of liquid fuels in heating systems, boiler plants or the like with at least one injection nozzle protruding into a combustion chamber essentially under ambient pressure and being in direct contact with the external atmosphere via the exhaust gas duct, able to be loaded intermittently with a liquid fuel at constantly uniform pressure, with the feed for combustion air being arranged in direct proximity to its nozzle port. 
     Intermittent feeding of fuel through injection nozzles into combustion chambers of internal combustion engines, on the one hand, and heating systems, boiler plants, and the like, on the other, are already long since familiar. 
     As for the prior art in this respect, several of the known documents shall be mentioned hereafter and briefly discussed. 
     DE 1277499 sets forth devices for the injecting of liquid fuel into ceramic ovens with high pressure and large pulse count, especially using specially designed electric valves as the injection devices. 
     From DE 4113067 is known a feeding device for liquid fuel to a heating burner, especially an oil burner, having a pulse control system by which it is possible to control the power even in the case of low installed power. It provides for a switching valve controlled by appropriate pulses. 
     In DE 10040868 a method is described for reduction of thermoacoustic vibrations, wherein a mixture of fuel and air is introduced into a burner via a fuel nozzle and this fuel is pulsed with a frequency between 1 Hz and 1000. 
     From WO 2004/055437 an injection nozzle for a burner for liquid fuel is described, which is also designed for low burn rates. A valve is provided here that forms the inflow of fuel into a pulsation. 
     From U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,261 a controller for the injection of a liquid fuel into the burner of a boiler or the like is known, wherein the fuel can be introduced in pulsating and measured manner via a spindle. 
     From U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,901 a device is known wherein a fuel valve opens and closes periodically at predetermined intervals of time. 
     Although some of these known burning methods also have a heating power variability within certain bounds, until now there has been no method in which a variation of the heating power of a furnace system is assured for the most diverse purposes of generation of heat within broad limits with good effectiveness over the entire power range at the same time. 
     The invention has set itself the problem of creating such a flexible and at the same time thermodynamically effective burning method in which a new technique, not yet customary in this branch, of intermittent supply of liquid fuel is adopted. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Thus, the subject of the invention is a new method for burning of liquid fuels according to the preamble of claim  1 , having the features set forth in the characterizing passage of this claim. 
     In order to attain the highest possible effectiveness of utilization of the caloric content of the liquid fuel, an admission of a second portion of the combustion air coordinated with the intermittent injection of the fuel/air mixture is advantageous according to claim  2 . 
     In the course of extensive investigations in the process of development of the method of the invention, it has proven to be especially favorable to reducing the environmentally harmful components in the exhaust gas or smoke gas to admit likewise intermittent urea as a solution into the combustion chamber, roughly in the vicinity of its exhaust gas exit, being coordinated with the injection pulses of a liquid fuel/air mixture and the second portion of combustion air, as set forth in claim  3 . 
     According to claim  4 , one favorable way of regulating the admission of air bubbles of the first air portion into the liquid fuel by using appropriate sensors is described. 
     Especially to reduce the danger of blocking or plugging of mechanisms of the furnace system, such as the high-pressure pump, with solid grease fractions, and/or to lower the viscosity of the liquid fuel, especially biofuel, for a better admission by nozzle, a preheating is advantageous, as described in claim  5 . 
     Claims  6  to  9  indicate especially favorable fuel injection pulse times, interval times between the fuel injection pulses, air admission pulse times and urea admission pulse times in regard to high thermal yields in the heating system. 
     Claim  10  discloses an especially economic method of preheating the second portion of combustion air being supplied directly to the combustion nozzle. 
     Claim  11  deals with an advisable use of a lambda probe in the context of the invented method. 
     Claim  12  gives further information on an advantageous way to specifically implement the intermittent feeding of the fuel. 
     Claim  13  deals with the returning of excess fuel/air mixture from the high-pressure pump or from the injection nozzle and separating the air contained therein. 
     Claim  14  deals with a favorable way of regulating the amount of air introduced. 
     The question of the ignition of the fuel/air mixture supplied to the injection nozzle is the subject of claim  15 . 
     Finally, yet another air supply to the fuel cloud in the combustion chamber is described in claim  16 . 
     The new method of burning liquid fuel is especially useful for both vegetable oils, pyrolysis oils, glycerin and for light and extra light heating oil. The burner is able to modulate its power continuously between 10 and 100%. To achieve this effect with highly viscous fuels, it has proven to be advantageous to use a pressure of over 100 bar or even up to at least 200 bar to achieve the most optimal atomization of vegetable oil, for example. Due to this high pressure, a continual injection into the combustion chamber is not possible, for even with the smallest possible nozzle more fuel would be injected than needed for the lowest heating power of the burner, e.g., 3 kW or 0.31 of heating oil with a caloric content of 10 kW/l. 
     Therefore, the pulsating injection of fuel into the combustion space according to the invention is absolutely necessary to achieve the above described unprecedented and unachievable modulation capacity of the heating power. 
     Important features and benefits of the new furnace system are the following: 
     1. Use of injection nozzles or a combination of electromechanical valve and nozzle in combustion chambers where the ambient pressure is prevailing and which are not designed to drive an internal combustion engine with air compression. 
     2. The injecting into the combustion chamber occurs over a particular power range, always with a constant injected amount of liquid fuel per injection. The power modulation is done by changing the frequency of injection. The amount injected each time can be changed in steps or continuously to broaden the power range. 
     3. Air is mixed in directly into the liquid fuel before it is compressed, for which a first portion of the total mixture of combustion air needed for the burning of the fuel is used. 
     4. A specific and pulsating blowing of air is done, being the second portion of the total air needed for the combustion, into the fuel cloud in the combustion chamber. 
     5. Advantageously, there is a preheating of the pulsating spray of the second air portion by a heating register in the combustion chamber. 
     6. There is a further injection of urea into the combustion chamber, being only under ambient pressure and also not part of an internal combustion engine within which the air is compressed prior to the injection of the liquid fuel. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING 
       The invention will be explained more closely by means of the drawing: 
         FIG. 1  shows a plan of the new method and  FIG. 2  a diagram showing a typical sequence of the intermittent admissions of fuel/air mixture (BLG), second combustion air portion (VL 2 ) and urea (UL) into the combustion chamber. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The new burning method is described in detail by means of the operation of a furnace layout  100  designed for this purpose, as shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     In order to protect the high-pressure pump  25  and also the atomizing nozzle  20  in the combustion chamber  10 , oil (FB) preferably preheated by a tank line heating system is taken from the tank  21  through one or more fine filters  22  and filtered there. The preheating in a preheating unit  23  prevents a clogging of the filter or filters  22  with solid grease or paraffin particles. 
     If the oil or the like which is provided as the liquid fuel FB has a relatively high viscosity, such as rapeseed oil with 38 mm2/s at 40° C. per DIN EN ISO 3104, it is necessary to preheat the fuel FB to a temperature of 80° C., for example, by means of a heating system  23 , such as an electrical one. This preheating  23  helps with better injection and also heightens the operating security of the high-pressure pump  25 . 
     The process is regulated in this regard during operation by means of a temperature sensor, not otherwise shown, in the already discussed preheating unit  23 . 
     The overflow of the high-pressure pump  25  is taken directly back to the line downstream from the preheater  23  via an air separator  27  in order to lower the consumption of electric power on the preheating and at the same time ensure that the thermally treated liquid fuel, such as vegetable oil, no longer gets back to the tank  21 , or else the storage capability of the oil stored there would be reduced. During standstill of the heating system  100  of the invention, the preheater  23  is shut off, being turned on prior to starting up the heating system, in order to heat the fuel there. 
     When operating with Extra Light heating oil, use of this preheating unit  23  is not necessary and therefore it is also not active in this case. 
     In order to achieve a substantially better and more effective burning of the liquid fuel FB in the combustion chamber  10 , the partial vacuum present in the suction line of the high-pressure pump  25  is used to introduce purified and filtered air, namely, a relatively lesser first volume portion VL 1  of the overall combustion air needed VL, as very tiny bubbles into the mass flow of the fuel FB through a thin injection lance, especially one with a borehole of less than 1 mm, in an air proportioning unit  24  and/or by means of another kind of dosing device, and it is thus mixed in with the liquid fuel FB, forming there a liquid fuel and air mixture BLG. 
     If there is no partial vacuum in the mentioned suction line, a compressor, for example, will be used to introduce the air bubbles. After the air has been mixed in, a sensor, especially a capacitive sensor, will measure the air concentration in the fuel/air mixture BLG and report this to the regulating unit  71  for the injection. 
     In one possible embodiment, two independent signals will be sent by the sensor, namely, “On” and “Off” via a hysteresis and an analog signal of the air concentration, e.g., proportional to 0 to 10 Volts. Only the air mixing via a valve is turned on and off by “On” and “Off”, to prevent too high an air concentration in the fuel/air mixture BLG. 
     The analog signal of the injection regulating unit  71  adjusts the air concentration in the fuel/air mixture BLG precisely to the current fuel volume flow by a regulated air pump (not shown) and adds it in appropriate dosage in the air proportioning unit  24 . 
     If there are several pumps connected in series, combustion air is added in each pressure stage of the fuel FB or fuel/air mixture BLG. Several pumps can also be grouped together as a multistage high-pressure pump  25 . 
     Excess fuel/air mixture BLG is removed via an overflow valve at the place of the high-pressure pump  25  with the highest pressure and can be admitted back in, for example, upstream from the last pressure pump or upstream from the pressure pump with the lowest pressure. 
     By boosting the pressure in the high-pressure pump  25 , the volume of the air bubbles is reduced by more than 100 times, in the case of rapeseed oil, and they then have a diameter of under 0.5 mm, for example. Upon emerging from the atomizing nozzle  20  of the burner in the combustion chamber  10 , the air bubbles then expand explosively, which further assists the atomization of the fuel. Likewise, additional air is already contained in the exiting jet of the atomizing nozzle  20 , namely, supplied via the nozzle  30 , being the second combustion air portion VL 2 , which improves the burning and supports the atomization. 
     The pressure in the line to the atomizing nozzle  20  is increased by means of the high-pressure pump  25  to over 100 bar, for example. For this, pump elements of various technologies can be integrated in a single housing. 
     If a mechanical injection nozzle  20  is used in the burner, where the nozzle needle lifts off only at a minimum pressure and closes when the pressure drops below opening pressure, the pulsating pressure for the injection will be generated in an injection pump. The injection volume is regulated in terms of the volume of liquid fuel compressed in the injection pump, resulting in different opening times and periods for the atomizing nozzle  20 . 
     If the burner has an electromechanical magnetic-valve injection nozzle  20  or a piezo-valve injection nozzle  20 , the necessary operating pressure will only be generated during the burner operation by said pump, and will not be directly related to the injection cycle. It makes no difference whether the magnetic and piezo valves are used separately or combined as a unit with the nozzle. 
     Various techniques can be used to make sure of the pressure applied and the required volume flow: either a pressure regulation, such as an overflow valve, a regulation in terms of the supplied volume, or a regulation which is a combination of these two variants. The injected quantity of liquid fuel/air mixture BLG and thus the quantity of fuel FB is regulated either by the opening duration of the magnetic valve or by the opening duration and opening width of the piezo-valve. 
     The opening frequency in both cases remains constant and only the opening duration and opening width is changed to regulate the fuel volume. 
     The excess liquid fuel/air mixture BLG of the high-pressure pump  25  on the one hand and/or the injection nozzle  20  on the other hand is taken back to the fuel circuit after the preheating  23  by an overflow and leakage line through the air separator  27 . 
     In burners of higher power, the pump power will be regulated by frequency transformer, in order to lower the consumption of electric energy. The volume flow in the mentioned overflow line will be reduced at low power. The power and speed of the high-pressure pump  25  will be regulated by a pressure sensor in its high-pressure region. 
     By an air enrichment of the liquid fuel FB, the air contained in the excess fuel FB of the high-pressure pump  26  and the injection nozzle  20  is removed before being returned to the high pressure pump  25 . This is done by a settling tank with air separator  27  in the fuel overflow circuit. Thanks to the lower velocity, especially due to higher temperature, the larger air bubbles are quickly separated from the fuel. At constantly prevailing temperature and pressure, the volume flow in the excess line in the settling tank  27  is the deciding factor. 
     If the injection pump  25  has several high-pressure connections to the injection nozzles, as in internal combustion engines, these can be taken to a single mechanical nozzle by one or more collectors or merging points  26 . Depending on the number of high-pressure connections and collectors, the rpm can be reduced to maintain the desired injection interval. The sequence of the high-pressure connections is only relevant when using more than one injection nozzle. 
     If an electromechanical injection nozzle is used, this part is unnecessary and will to be replaced by a part with an enlarged cross section. 
     Thanks to the injection nozzle  20 , the fuel/air mixture BLG is finely atomized, depending on the high-pressure pump  25 , and mixed with the portion VL 2  of combustion air VL, supplied via, e.g., an annular nozzle  30 , without compression and distributed in the combustion chamber  10  standing at ambient pressure, of the new furnace system not used as an internal combustion engine. 
     The principal area of application of the invention is a use in heating boiler installations for the heating of water for systems requiring thermal energy to prepare heating, process, and warm water. 
     Despite the pulsating or intermittent injection, when the combustion chamber  10  is viewed as a whole there is a continual, i.e., uninterrupted burning of the fuel/air mixture BLG in the combustion chamber  10 , so that only an initial ignition of this is required. 
     When mechanical or electromechanical injection nozzles are used, the injection duration and thus the injection volume is constant, unlike internal combustion engines, and the power is regulated in terms of the injection cycles per unit of time. 
     Thus, when using an additional injection of a urea solution UL into the combustion chamber  10  for the reduction of NOx in the combustion exhaust gases VA escaping through the exhaust conduit  51 , the injection volume of the urea UL introduced likewise intermittently from the urea tank  4  via the nozzle  40  in the section  11  of the combustion chamber  10  near the start of the exhaust conduit  52  is also constant. 
     The figures indicated in the course of the compression when mixing air into the liquid fuel are given kWh/kg or only in kg. 
     Thanks to the high and at the same time continuous modulation capacity of the described new furnace system  100  achieved by the invention, the fuel volumes are bounded at the top and bottom, depending on the usage and type or model of the boiler. 
     As an example, take a burner for the maximum heating power of a combustion chamber  10  or boiler of 25 kW: starting from the lowest heating power of 0.3 kg/h (=3 kWh) rapeseed oil, injection occurs continuously and adapted to the required heating load and delivery power of the pumps to the heating circuits by forward and return regulation up to 2.5 kg/h (=25 kW) rapeseed oil. Thus, the minimum heating power corresponds to an injection of 0.0833 g/s and maximum heating power of the example is 0.6944 g/s. 
     No changes occur in the other furnace specifications, whether one uses mechanically or electromechanically controlled valves with nozzles or mechanical or electromechanical injection nozzles  20 ,  30 ,  40 . 
     For the reduction of NOx, as already mentioned, urea UL is sprayed or injected into the combustion chamber  10  after the main burning of the liquid fuel FB into the already cooler smoke gas VA at the end of the combustion. A clear and direct time relationship is maintained between the injection of the fuel/air mixture BLG and that of the urea UL. 
     In contrast with other internal combustion engines, in the invented method the smoke gas or combustion exhaust VA exists in a noncompressed state and therefore is not used for any expansion work in any cycle, apart from the buildup of pressure by the resistance to flow along the path of the smoke gas  51 . 
     To ignite the liquid fuel or oil and air mixture BLG, a high-voltage arc igniter is used advantageously. 
     Thanks to an air limiting gate, the volume of incoming fresh air taken through the combustion chamber  10  and preheated or not preheated in the heating register  34  there is limited according to the heating power, in order to maintain the optimal mix ratio of air VL and liquid fuel FB for the combustion. 
     The continuous modulation capacity of the volume of liquid fuel FB requires that the volume of air in the second portion VL 2  of combustion air VL introduced into the combustion chamber  10  through the air admission nozzle  30  of the burner also be adapted. In this way, the overall air volume is modulated. 
     The setpoint for the servo-drive of the air limiting gate is determined by the lambda probe  52  at the start of the exhaust conduit  51 . Hence, the volume of air from the high-pressure connections makes up or amounts to the overall air volume needed for the combustion minus that volume of air already present in the fuel/air mixture. 
     Regulating of the combustion air volume as a whole occurs by means of the air volume regulating unit  6 ,  61  for the blower for the supply of additional air via an air intake opening  313  in proximity to the nozzle  20  and  30  into the combustion chamber  10  and for the compressor  32  responsible for the intermittent supply of the second portion VL 2  of combustion air VL. 
     In burners with higher power, advantageously there is additionally a regulation of the rpm via frequency transformer, in order to lower the consumption of electric energy by the blower  31  and/or compressor  32 . 
     In order to lower the exhaust losses in the lower power range, not only is the fuel/air mixture BLG injected pulsating or intermittently, but also the additional pulsating and targeted blowing of the second portion VL 2  of combustion air VL occurs essentially in the interval of these injections, as mentioned, using at least one air admission nozzle  30  of the burner, into the vaporized fuel in the combustion chamber  10 . 
     This air is taken in the compressed state across a heating register  34  located in the combustion chamber  10  and warmed up there to accomplish an easier ignition and thus optimize the burning, and the air is supplied via a valve  33  to the air admission nozzle  30 . 
     To regulate the makeup of the mixture and thus the exhaust composition, the burner requires a telemetry device which can measure the exhaust gases VA or detect whether the mixture is too rich or too lean. This function is now taken on by the lambda probe  52 , from the slightest partial load to the full load. It constantly measures, through a comparative oxygen measurement, the portion of oxygen in the exhaust AV remaining after the combustion. 
     The lambda probe  52 , which is positioned in the smoke gas flue  51 , furnishes the control deviation from the optimal burner data which is equalized by the feedback loop via the servo motor at the air limiting gate. Since the exhaust values lie below the operating temperature of 300° C. of the lambda probe  52 , it is beneficial for this to be outfitted with a heating system. The heating occurs at once with the demand signal, so that feedback control can be implemented by the automatic burning units  7 ,  6 ,  71 ,  61  immediately after the ignition process is finished. The air throttling achieved in this way after the air flushing goes to the good of the ignition and if the oxygen supply is too lean it is corrected right away. 
     Thanks to the pulsating operation of the burner, the lambda probe  52  is operated in the lower optimal measurement range when the heating power is low, in order to reduce the exhaust losses. To maintain a stable feedback control, the correction of the negative deviation is delayed in proportion to the time difference between two injections. 
     All elements of the ignition mechanism, sequence controls, and safety mechanisms are of standard design, per engineering codes. 
     The feedback control to be used with the invented method, having the function of controlling the injection intervals, must fulfill the following two tasks in particular: regulating the temperature of the energy carrying medium and adapting the power to the heat consumption at the given time. 
     According to the goal of a system operating by the new method of the invention, the temperature of the energy carrier medium is constant, or variable in terms of given parameters. By detecting the output temperature, the mean sum temperature of the combustion pulses and times or intervals between the combustion pulses in the combustion chamber is regulated in dependence on the requirements by changing the fuel volume. 
     Only the required heating power is a critical criterion. The flow temperature is varied to control the heating power at the heating elements of a heating plant. At constant flow velocity of the heating medium, the required heating power corresponds to the difference between forward and return flow at the heating boiler. The task of the feedback control is to keep this difference constant, once it is set. 
     For this purpose, the injected fuel volume alone is changed by the invention&#39;s varying of the injection frequency. Thanks to the concomitant holding of the fuel injection volume constant per injection cycle, the quantity of admitted urea UL per injection cycle is also nearly constant and does not have to be explicitly controlled, but instead is regulated as the sole control variable by the particular setpoint fuel/air mixture injection duration and, thus, injection volume. 
       FIG. 2  shows a specific diagram of the time plot of the injections of fuel/air mixture, second volume portion VL 2  of combustion air VL, and urea solution UL into the combustion chamber  10 . 
     Plotted along the y-axis are the maximum amounts of fuel/air mixture injection pulses BLI, and admission pulses of the second volume portion VL 2 , supplied to the nozzle  30 , of the total required combustion air VL, beginning shortly before the start of the former and likewise ending shortly after their end, and of the urea admission pulse UI, introduced in the interval II between these two admission pulses and lasting for around Δt=9.2 ms here, for the urea solution UL admitted into the combustion chamber  10  at its cool side via the nozzle  40  located there. 
     On the x-axis is plotted the time in ms, and one can read off there the short periods Δt between the beginning of the air (VL 2 ) pulse LI and the beginning of the fuel injection pulse BLI and Δg between the end of same and the end of the air pulse LI, as well as the time between beginning and end of each of the fuel/air mixture pulses BLI.