Low NOx heaters reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions during operation, minimizing harm to the environment and ensuring the safety of personnel working in the facility. Understanding what a low NOx heater is, how it reduces emissions, and the other benefits of a low NOx heater will help you determine if it is the right solution for your application.
What Is a Low NOx Heater?
Nitrogen oxide, or NOx, is a greenhouse gas that is known to cause harm to the environment. During the fuel combustion process, conventional heaters such as industrial hot oil heaters release nitrogen oxides. These gases include nitrogen dioxide (NO2), one of the most hazardous gases to the environment and the health of living beings. To reduce the environmental risk of releasing NO2 into the atmosphere, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established regulations to limit NO2 emissions.
How Do Low NOx Heaters Reduce Emissions?
Enerquip delivers heating systems that optimize energy savings while minimizing the system’s environmental impact. We recommend flue gas recirculation as the ideal method of achieving the lowest possible NOx emission levels. We can minimize NOx formation through the installation of a large flue gas recirculation duct on the opposite end of the system to the burner. The duct’s large surface area efficiently exhausts heat, reducing NOx formation. Our highest-performing burner models are capable of reducing NOx emissions to 9 PPM without the addition of a flue gas duct.
Low NOx hot oil heater with a flue gas recirculation duct and integrated economizer section.
Low NOx Heaters from Enerquip
The Enerquip serpentine coil heater has many distinct advantages when a low NOx heater or burner system is required. Some of these advantages include:
Large Combustion Volume
Our serpentine coils, and the space between them, offer a large combustion volume in the radiant section of our heater. This large combustion volume becomes an advantage for low NOx because it reduces the volumetric heat release as well as the overall firebox temperature, thereby reducing NOx formation.
Low Stack Temperature
The convection section of the Enerquip heater is designed to reduce the gas temperature leaving this section to 100 °F above the incoming hot oil temperature. The lower the gas temperature (with the flue gas recirculation design) of the burner, the less NOx is formed during combustion.
Large Flue Gas Recirculation Duct
The Enerquip design has the stack at the opposite end of the burner. There is a relatively long run of flue gas recirculation duct required. We oversize this duct and, in most cases, will use a 10-inch diameter duct. The large surface area of the duct will quickly allow the flue gas to give up heat and reduce the gas temperature even further at the entrance to the burner. This reduced temperature will, again, allow for less NOx formation.
Enerquip has thermal fluid heaters in service with NOx levels of less than 9 PPM total NOx, and less than 50 PPM Co. We believe using flue gas recirculation is the most efficient way to achieve the lowest NOx level, but we also use burner models that can achieve 9PPM NOx without a flue gas duct.
Integrated Economizer Section
Low NOx burners have lower peak flame temperatures which can reduce efficiency; however, Enerquip’s serpentine coil heaters come standard with a built-in convection section (economizer) where additional finned coils can be added to recover any lost efficiency.
Why Go Low NOx?
While for some operations, choosing low NOx is a choice, for many others, it’s a mandate. Either way, below are some primary benefits of installing a low NOx heater in your facility.
♻️ Low NOx Heaters Reduce Your Environmental Impact
The release of NOx can harm the environment when it interacts with other compounds in the atmosphere. The EPA links NOx emissions with various environmental phenomena, including smog, climate change, and acid rain. Your facility can significantly reduce NOx and NO2 emissions into the atmosphere with a low NOx heater. Installing a waste heat recovery unit can further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
🦺 Low NOx Heaters Increase Employee Safety
The EPA has found that exposure to NOx can contribute to various respiratory diseases, such as asthma. When you install a low NOx heater in your facility, you can significantly reduce the risk of these gases harming your employees’ health.
Low NOx heaters reduce nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from industrial heating operations. Limiting the formation and release of these gases is critical to protecting the safety of your employees and the environment. At Enerquip, the serpentine coil design of our heating solutions minimizes the release of nitrogen oxides while also improving the heater’s energy efficiency.
Whether you’re in the budgeting or planning stage, we’re here to help. Contact us or request a quote to speak with a team member about our low NOx heater solutions.