Patent ID: 8075305

Claim:
A staged-air dual-fuel burner for the combustion of gaseous and non-gaseous fuels and air in a furnace, said burner comprising: (a) a primary air chamber for providing at least a portion of the combustion air; (b) a burner tube having an upstream end and a downstream end; (c) a fuel orifice located adjacent the upstream end of said burner tube, for introducing gaseous fuel into said burner tube; (d) a burner tip having an outer diameter mounted on said downstream end of said burner tube adjacent a first opening in the furnace, so that combustion of the gaseous fuel takes place downstream of said burner tip producing a gaseous fuel flame; (e) at least one non-gaseous fuel gun, said at least one non-gaseous fuel gun having at least one fuel discharge orifice, said at least one non-gaseous fuel gun being radially positioned beyond said outer diameter of said burner tip, the radial positioning of said non-gaseous fuel guns enables the combustion of the gaseous fuel to stabilize non-gaseous fuel combustion, wherein said at least one non-gaseous fuel gun comprises a plurality of non-gaseous fuel guns for supplying non-gaseous fuel; (f) at least one air port in fluid communication with a secondary air chamber for supplying a second portion of fresh or ambient air; (g) a peripheral tile which peripherally surrounds said burner tip; and (h) a burner floor which surrounds said peripheral tile, said burner floor having a plurality of radially disposed openings for placement of said plurality of non-gaseous fuel guns within said openings of said burner floor; wherein said at least one non-gaseous discharge orifice of said at least one non-gaseous fuel gun is positioned so that the non-gaseous fuel is injected into the gaseous fuel flame, whereby a portion of the non-gaseous fuel flame vaporizes prior to combustion and stabilizes the non-gaseous fuel flame.