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CO levels from oil burner

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Comments

  • Firedragon_4
    Firedragon_4 Member Posts: 1,436
    Sorry Jim, I keep trying and hydrocarbons

    are hydrocarbons and believe it or not it actually mirrors Bacharach's stuff, JMO!
  • jim sokolovic
    jim sokolovic Member Posts: 439
    George, you are one of the many...

    people here that totally amaze me with your knowledge, dedication, and willingness to share. I guess I'm just stuck on something that doesn't make sense to me, and since I'm mostly familiar with combustion stuff... well, you know how it is. But don't you also see the dilemma, here? Thanks for trying, though - no need for apologies!
  • Firedragon_4
    Firedragon_4 Member Posts: 1,436
    Tell you what,

    send me an e-mail and I'll put you in touch with my 'expert'.
  • jim sokolovic
    jim sokolovic Member Posts: 439
    Than you, George - I spoke to...

    Bill at Testo. He was able to answer the following without any reservation:

    1- Oxygen reaches zero at stociometric and will stay at zero at all fuel rich points beyond that, providing the combustion can be maintained.

    2- A combustion analyzer that calculates CO2 from the Oxygen reading will only show the "ultimate" CO2 (let's say 16% for oil) in this fuel rich area, based on the above.

    3- A combustion analyzer that reads CO2 directly (by a sensor or chemically) may show a reading close to the "ultimate" or possibly lower in this fuel rich area. This is due to the unlikely chance that the "ultimate" can actually be achieved on most equipment, and once you go even richer on fuel, the chances are you are introducing more unburnt fuel into the process, causing dilution of the CO2 reading.

    In conclusion, I would now say that combustion analyzers that calculate CO2% from Oxygen% are not giving a meaningful CO2 reading in these fuel rich areas, and do not follow the rules of the charts we discussed. I would still maintain that the tech should have enough clues from other sources (smoke reading, CO reading, flame quality) not to be in these areas to begin with.

    I know this was a long thread that seemed to go nowhere for awhile, but I feel that I've learned something very valuable that I had not thought of before.
  • Firedragon_4
    Firedragon_4 Member Posts: 1,436
    Glad to be of help!

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I finally had some time to read this post

    and Jim S. I can say that in the past I have had some unusual occurences of being on the other side of the curve on some gas commercial large burner boilers. I deduced it was caused by a poor combustion chamber mix with what I call "tramp air" mixing at the point of testing. "Tramp air" is caused by openings and poor repairs to the boiler or flue area that allows air to be introduced after the combustion process. Those unusual air reading are rare and I do not believe they are combustion related. Jim Davis or George Lanthier may have some input toward that perhaps.

    I have never seen this in residentail applications. The chart I sent you supports the fact that on the left hand side of the curve there is no O2 only CO2 and CO. It is by the way very difficult to tell by eye at 8% CO2 when you are on the wrong side of the curve and it gets impossible at 9% and 10% on up toward ultimate CO2. That is why seeing a blue flame on gas is not the only answer you must test. It is also the case on conversions from coal and from oil to gas that boiler and furnace repairs and preperation before installing the power gas burner are a must. If there are leaks allowed then your readings are incorrect. It can be tested by closing up the air intakes on the burner and see if your O2 changes.

    I wish I had more time to discuss this at length.
This discussion has been closed.

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