Combustion Equipment & Systems
Norton Engineering’s highly experienced combustion systems & equipment specialists assist clients in evaluating and maintaining existing heaters and boilers, energy efficiency improvement and safe operation. Our experience runs the gamut from traditional fired heaters and boilers, to those firing CO offgas from fluid catalytic cracking units and fluid coking units. We have developed the most advanced low emission – high efficiency fired heater for a US Department of Energy – Industry Consortium made up of industrial leaders in oil refining and power generation. We have also designed and operated heaters using gas turbine exhaust as combustion air and high temperature methane and naptha reformers used in hydrogen and ethylene production.
In addition to the hardware and design side of combustion equipment and systems, Norton Engineering has broad experience in refining and petrochemical plant process engineering and operations which is very useful in evaluating fired heater performance and setting safe operating limits. We routinely evaluate operations of clients’ heaters and boilers to determine safe operating limits which are used in routine operations and in setting automatic trip points where safety instrumented systems are employed (SIS).
Norton has expertise in diagnosing heater and boiler operating problems ranging from the causes of catastrophic failures to combustion induced vibration. We have experience in safely demolishing heaters which have been destroyed by explosion and maximizing recovery of components which can be reused. We can evaluate components for reuse and design a new heater to replace the old while making maximum use of recoverable parts, to shorten the time needed for rebuilding while providing a robust and safe unit.
Norton’s engineers have experience in the development and installation of advanced control and diagnostic systems for fired heaters to monitor and improve unit efficiency and operating safety. We have designed numerous Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) for heaters, to both industry and clients’ standards. All of the systems we have designed have been successfully started-up and continue to operate flawlessly. We also provide operator training for combustion systems and new SIS installations.
Regulations tightening emissions control of combustion sources is pushing many clients to reduce NOx from fired heaters. Norton Engineering is assisting clients in this area by developing designs for Ultra-low NOx burner installations in existing heaters. We evaluate the heater to determine its suitability for this type of burner and develop designs for heater modifications needed and fuel gas systems upgrades where required. We work with burner vendors to modify burner designs when their standard offering does not fit a particular application and where making it fit would be cost prohibitive. In one recent project, Norton developed and supervised field work on an ULNB retrofit, of a newly redesigned burner (not the vendor’s standard offering), into operating heaters including rework of parts of the heater floor. The installation went very well, faster than planned and without a safety incident. We are proud to have been working with an exceptional client team to pull this off.
Reducing NOx emissions from boilers can be somewhat more challenging than doing the same thing in fired heaters. Boilers have a higher volumetric heat release than heaters and are used as dumping grounds for many “non-optimum” fuels. Norton Engineering has a proven track record of helping clients to realize NOx reductions from these high NOx emissions sources. We completes technology evaluations, negotiates performance guarantees with equipment suppliers, develops boiler operating estimates, designs flue gas recirculation systems, modifies economizers for SCR installations, designs ducting, SCR and ID fans, etc. In short, Norton Engineering can develop an entire NOx control design or support clients as a technical specialist or Owner’s Engineer.
Contact us today to find out how the breadth and depth of our engineers’ experience can be leveraged to improve safety, emissions and energy performance of your combustion assets.