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The extent to which energy conversion efficiencies can be increased by using oxygen or oxygen-enriched air for combustion was studied. Combustion of most fuels with oxygen instead of air was found to have five advantages: increases combustion temperature and efficiency, improves heat transfer at high temperatures, reduces nitrous oxide emissions, permits a high ration of exhaust gas recirculation and allows combustion of certain materials not combustible in air. The same advantages, although to a lesser degree, are apparent with oxygen-enriched air. The cost-effectiveness of the process must necessarily be improved by about 10% when using oxygen instead of air before such use could become justifiable on purely economic terms. Although such a modest increase appears to be attainable in real situations, this study ascertained that it is not possible to generally assess the economic gains. Rather, each case requires its own evaluation. For certain processes industry has already proven that the use of oxygen leads to more efficient plant operation. Several ideas for essentially new applications are described. Specifically, when oxygen is used with exhaust gas recirculation in external or internal combustion engines. It appears also that the advantages of pulse combustion can be amplified further if oxygen is used.more » When burning wet fuels with oxygen, direct steam generation becomes possible. Oxygen combustion could also improve processes for in situ gasification of coals, oil shales, peats, and other wet fuels. Enhanced oil recovery by fire flooding methods might also become more effective if oxygen is used. The cold energy contained in liquid oxygen can be substantially recovered in the low end of certain thermodynamic cycles. Further efforts to develop certain schemes for using oxygen for combustion appear to be justified from both the technical and economic viewpoints.« less |
