EVALUATION OF TIRE-DERIVED FUEL FOR USE IN NITROGEN-OXIDE REDUCTION BY REBURNING

Tire-derived fuel (TDF) was tested in a small-scale (44 kW or 150,000 Btu/hr) combustor to determine its feasibility as a fuel for use in re burning for control of nitrogen oxide (NO). TDF was gravity-fed into u pward flowing combustion gases from a primary natural gas flame doped with ammonia to simulate a high NO combustion process. Emissions of NO , oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter were measured. The tests varied the nominal primary NO level from 600 to 1 ,200 ppm and the primary stoichiometry from 1.1 to 1.2, and used both natural gas and TDF as reburn fuels. The reburn injection rate was var ied to achieve 8-20% of the ti,tal heat input from the reburn fuel. NO emissions reductions ranged between 20 and 63% when using TDF, depend ing upon the rate of TDF injection, primary NO, and primary stoichiome try. NO emission reductions when using natural gas as the reburn fuel were consistently higher than those when using TDE While additional wo rk remains to optimize the process and evaluate costs, TDF has been sh own to have the potential to be a technically viable reburning fuel.