(27d) Development of a Commercial Scale Ethylene Furnace Hydrogen Burner

As the ethylene industry considers potential pathways to reduced CO₂ emissions, partial or full fuel switching from methane-rich tail-gas to hydrogen has featured in numerous papers and presentations.

While the direct CO₂ emission benefits of hydrogen combustion are straight-forward to calculate, the design of a hydrogen burner compatible with modern ethylene cracking furnaces must address numerous technical challenges. Included in those challenges are:

1. Maintaining adequate heat distribution and avoidance of localized high coking rates.
2. Managing NOx emissions as the fuel-gas hydrogen content increases.
3. Providing acceptable burner stability across the full fuel-gas range from natural-gas to hydrogen.

This paper will review progress made in developing a full-scale hydrogen burner for 100% floor-fired ethylene furnaces, including test-furnace performance trends.