BURNER FOR SYNTHESIS GAS WITH IMPROVED COOLING

Abstract

A burner (1) for the production of synthesis gas, configured to feed a reactant stream and an oxidant stream into a reaction chamber, the burner comprising at least one cooled component (11, 12), wherein said cooled component comprises channels (20) to convey a cooling medium, a cooling medium header (24) and a cooling medium collector (25), wherein said channels, said cooling medium header and said cooling medium collector are integrally formed within said cooled component of the burner.

Claims

1. A burner configured to feed a reactant stream and an oxidant stream into a reaction chamber, the burner comprising at least one cooled component, wherein said cooled component comprises: a plurality of channels arranged in parallel to convey a cooling medium across said cooled component of the burner; a cooling medium header and a cooling medium collector directly connected to said channels; wherein said channels, said cooling medium header and said cooling medium collector are integral within said cooled component of the burner; said burner including a cooling medium collection chamber, which is integrally formed within said component of the burner, said collection chamber being separated from said cooling medium header and from said cooling medium collector, and said collection chamber being directly connected to all said channels.

2. The burner according to claim 1, wherein said cooling medium collection chamber is located at a tip region of said cooled component.

3. The burner according to claim 1, wherein: said cooled component of the burner is made with a 3D printing technique; the channels, the cooling medium header and collector and, if provided, the cooling medium collection chamber, are made during the 3D printing of the cooled component.

4. The burner according to claim 1, wherein said channels are distributed on a circumference, thus forming a circular array of channels.

5. The burner according to claim 4, wherein inflow channels and outflow channels alternate in the array of channels.

6. The burner according to claim 1, wherein: said channels have an equivalent diameter which, for each section of each channel, range from 20% to 90% of a local thickness of the cooled component around the section of the channel, and/or the distance between each pair of adjacent channels is 10% to 200% of a local thickness of the cooled component around the pair of channels, and/or for each cross section of the cooled component where cooling channels are present, the cross section being in a plane perpendicular to axes of the cooling channels, the channels are distributed over the entire cross section of said cooled component.

7. The burner according to claim 1, wherein the cooling component comprises at least one region with a first number of channels and/or channel spacing, and a second region with a second and different number of channels and/or channel spacing, according to local cooling needs.

8. The burner according to claim 1, wherein the at least one cooled component of the burner includes a nozzle and a body coaxially arranged around the nozzle, the nozzle having a central aperture for one of the reactant stream and oxidant, and the body defining an annular passage around the nozzle for the other of the reactant stream and oxidant.

9. An equipment for the production of synthesis gas by reacting an oxidizable process gas with an oxidant gas, the equipment comprising a reaction chamber and a burner arranged to feed said process gas and oxidant gas into the reaction chamber, the burner being in accordance with claim 1.

10. An equipment according to claim 9, wherein the equipment is any of: an autothermal reformer; a non-catalytic partial oxidation reactor; a catalytic partial oxidation reactor.

11. A process for the production of a synthesis gas, including the steps of feeding an oxidizable process gas and an oxidant gas into a reaction chamber with a burner according to claim 1.

12. The process according to claim 11 for the production of a hydrogen-containing synthesis gas, the process being any of autothermal reforming, non-catalytic partial oxidation, or catalytic partial oxidation (CPO), said process gas being a hydrocarbon-containing gas or a partially reformed gas, said oxidant gas being any of air, oxygen-enriched air, or oxygen.

13. The method for the manufacturing of a burner for the production of synthesis gas, the burner being configured to feed a reactant stream and an oxidant stream into a reaction chamber, the method comprising the manufacturing of at least one cooled component of the burner with a plurality of internal channels arranged in parallel for the circulation of a cooling medium, the method including that said channels are made within the cooled component; said burner being as claimed in claim 1.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the cooled component is made by additive manufacturing process and said channels for the cooling medium are made during the additive manufacturing process.

15. The burner according to claim 6, wherein: said channels have an equivalent diameter which, for each section of each channel, range from 20% to 90% of a local thickness of the cooled component around the section of the channel, and/or the distance between each pair of adjacent channels is 10% to 90% of a local thickness of the cooled component around the pair of channels, and/or for each cross section of the cooled component where cooling channels are present, the cross section being in a plane perpendicular to axes of the cooling channels, the channels are distributed over the entire cross section of said cooled component.

16. A process for the production of a synthesis gas, including the steps of feeding an oxidizable process gas and an oxidant gas into a reaction chamber with a burner, including the use of an equipment according to claim 9.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0047] FIG. 1 is a schematic section of an equipment for the production of synthesis gas according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0048] FIG. 2 illustrates a portion of a burner according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0049] FIGS. 3-4 are a scheme of cooling channels in a burner according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0050] FIG. 5 is a scheme of cooling channels according to another embodiment.

[0051] FIG. 6 illustrates the operation of cooling channels according to the scheme of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0052] FIG. 1 illustrates an ATR reactor 1 including a reaction chamber 2 which contains a catalytic bed 3. A burner 10 is mounted on top of the reactor 1 and is fed with a reformable fuel stream 5 and an oxidant 4. The fuel and oxidant come into contact and react in the region 7 above the catalytic bed 3, then the reforming reaction is performed through the bed 3 to produce the output reformed gas 6.

[0053] The burner 10 may comprise one or more components cooled by a cooling medium, such as water, flowing through small channels embedded in the cooled component.

[0054] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the burner 10 including a central nozzle 11 coaxially surrounded by an annular body 12. The oxidant stream 4 is delivered by the nozzle 11; the fuel 5 is fed via the annular channel 13 between the nozzle 11 and the annular body 12.

[0055] Both the nozzle 11 and the annular body 12, in this example, include a multitude of cooling channels 20 integrally formed in the structure of the nozzle 11 and body 12, respectively.

[0056] FIGS. 3-4 illustrate, schematically, a first arrangement of the channels 20.

[0057] The channels 20 include inflow channels 21 and outflow channels 22, connected in pairs to form U-shaped channels 23. Each pair is connected to a distributor 24 and to a collector 25. The inflow channels 21 convey the cooling medium towards a tip 26 of the respective component, that is the nozzle 11 or the body 12. The tip 26 is most exposed to the high temperature in the region 7 of the reactor 1. The outflow channels 22 convey the cooling medium back to the collector 25.

[0058] FIG. 5 illustrates schematically a second arrangement of the channels 20 wherein the channels 20 connect to a chamber 27 which is also integrally formed within the cooled component of the burner. Said chamber 27, acting as a cooling medium collector, is located at the front portion of the cooled component, namely at the tip 26 in the example of the figures.

[0059] FIG. 6 illustrates the advantage of the arrangement of FIG. 5. When a channel is obstructed, for example the channel 20 marked with X in the figure, the system is able to re-arrange the circulation of the cooling medium and to compensate for the channel out of operation thanks to the presence of the common chamber 27.

[0060] Particularly, the following effect shall be noted. If one of the channels is closed by obstruction, the flow in the adjacent channels is not reduced to null because the other inflow channels are able to provide the required cooling medium through the common collector chamber 27 on the tip. The closed channel also is in contact with the cooling medium both upstream and downstream of the occlusion and some cooling is provided by coolant reaching those regions by natural convection or random fluctuations due to turbulence. Also, the closure of a channel increases the flow in the others, especially the adjacent channels, thus increasing the cooling in the region adjacent to the closed channel and thus mitigating, by conduction through the body, the overheating in the closed channel.