(58ak) Thermal Evaluation and Assessment of Process Burners using CFD

In the past few years, CFD numerical methods have improved and became a favorable tool for many thermal types of equipment. For example, the tool was used here in this work, for the development and optimization of process burners used in petrochemicals industries such as (ethylene steam crackers, reformers, and EDC furnaces). The focus of this work was to predict the burner flame structure and distributions of velocities, temperature, and emissions inside the furnace volume. Detailed chemistry mechanisms, radiation, and turbulence were accounted in the model that resulted in very reasonable predictions of the flame structures at low computational cost. The results showed acceptable agreements of flue gas concentrations compared with burner plant and design data. However, for further accuracy in the prediction of emissions like NOx and CO, advanced turbulence model need to be incorporated to resolve most of the kinetic energy that can directly affect scalar mixing of spices, this will come at higher computational cost like in LES or DES turbulence models.