Engineer Evgeny Kocharyan from Krasnodar came up with an unusual way to make steam boilers both more economical and cleaner. The installation he developed literally “filters” the air before fuel combustion, separates nitrogen, and directs an oxygen-enriched flow to the burner.
The main idea is to integrate a membrane module between the compressor and the burner. It separates ordinary air into two streams. Nitrogen exits, and oxygen enters the furnace along with natural gas. Simultaneously, part of the flue gases returns to the system through recirculation.
The project authors note that this scheme allows reducing the volume of harmful emissions and increasing the efficiency of the installation. The patent description states that in the test scheme, the concentration of nitrogen oxides (NOx) decreased by more than 33%, and the boiler efficiency increased.
The developers explained the effect by the fact that oxygen in the mixture allows reducing the excess air during gas combustion. This reduces the volume of exhaust flue gases and lowers the temperature in the most stressed areas of the furnace.
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