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  Systems, apparatus and method for flameless combustion absent catalyst or high temperature oxidantsRelated Patent Categories: Combustion, Process Of Combustion Or Burner Operation, Flame Shaping, Or Distributing Components In Combustion Zone, Whirling, Recycling Material, Or Reversing Flow In An Enclosed Flame ZoneThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070269755. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] Not applicable. STATEMENT OF FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH/DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not applicable. THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT [0003] Not applicable. REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING [0004] Not applicable. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0005] The present invention relates generally to a spontaneous combustion system, apparatus and method. More specifically, the present invention discloses a system, apparatus and method whereby flameless combustion may be precipitated and maintained in a combustion chamber of any shape absent catalyst or high temperature oxidants. The present invention can be used for a variety of applications including, but not limited to, heating a building, residential boilers, commercial boilers, industrial boilers, supplying heat for fractionation or catalytic reaction, and anything that requires a heating process. [0006] Conventional furnaces and industrial heaters operate at sufficiently high flame temperatures, approximately 3800.degree. F., which causes large quantities of nitrous oxides, sometimes referred to as NO.sub.x to form. A thermal combustion system of the contemporary art typically operates by contacting fuel and air, creating a boundary layer, with an ignition source, which ignites this mixture such that it continues to burn. The air is rich in oxygen and nitrogen molecules, while the fuel is rich in hydrogen and carbon molecules. At the boundary layer, these molecules are all moving around randomly. Once the temperature in the boundary layer reaches the auto-ignition temperature or with the assistance of an ignition source, combustion occurs. During combustion, the hydrogen molecules combine with the oxygen molecules to form water and release energy. Additionally, the carbon molecules combine with the oxygen molecules to form carbon dioxide and release energy. Once combustion occurs, the flame temperatures within the boundary layer go up to approximately 3800.degree. F. because these molecules are tightly packed in the volume and there is a high release of energy per volume of gas. A visible flame is the resultant of carbon cracking at these elevated temperatures. This 3800.degree. F. high flame temperature is inherent with conventional combustion and results in increased NO.sub.x formations. NO.sub.x emissions are created during combustion with temperatures over bout 2200.degree. F. Unfortunately, thermal combustion systems of the contemporary art form large quantities of NO.sub.x emissions, typically in the range of 50 to 60 ppm. Thus, there exists a need within the industry for reducing NO.sub.x formations during the combustion process, which is one of the goals of the present invention. [0007] Industrial heaters are well known and represented in the contemporary art. The science and practice of flameless combustion is equally well known and appreciated by those skilled in the art. To reduce NO.sub.x formations during combustion, flameless combustion may be used because combustion would occur at temperatures less than 2200.degree. F. In the prior art with respect to flameless combustion, U.S. Pat. No. 6,796,789, issued to Gibson et al. on Sep. 28, 2004, teaches a combination of flameless combustion within an essentially oval heater to facilitate increased recirculation rates of hot flue gas, fuel gas and air within the heater's radiant section to achieve and maintain flameless combustion. [0008] The prior art has a limited use in that it requires the chamber to be essentially oval since the invention depends on controlling the mixing of the air stream and fuel stream via centrifugal principles and also that the flue gas must be recirculated at high recirculation rates only possible in an oval enclosure. The prior art teaches that the air, fuel gas and flue gas are located along a very narrow boundary along the chamber's wall, wherein the flue gas is located on top of the fuel gas which is located on top of the air stream. The flue gas mixes with the fuel gas, forming inert fuel gas, which then mixes with the air according to centrifugal principles. Since each of the gases are located on top of each other, hot spots occur within the essentially oval combustion chamber close to the combustion chamber's curvature areas. These hot spots may elevate the temperature in that area to above 2200.degree. F., thus increasing the amount of NO.sub.x emissions that are formed. [0009] What has been lacking, however, until the present invention, and what the industry long has sought, is a combustion chamber that can precipitate and maintain flameless combustion along any surface-shape, whether the surface is convex, concave, straight, or a combination of any of these surface shapes. Additionally, the industry has also sought flexibility as to the source of the flue gas, whether it be external or internal. Finally, the industry has also wanted a flameless combustion chamber capable of performing the combustion with the least amount of NO.sub.x emissions which can be achieved with better, more uniformed mixing of the gases. This uniform mixing can be achieved with the present invention by first inerting both the air and the fuel gas and then allowing the two gases, located side by side of each other, to diffuse into each other, thus eliminating the creation of hot spots and reducing NO.sub.x formations within the combustion chamber. [0010] The present invention is capable of using a flameless combustion chamber having an internal surface shape that is convex, concave, straight or a combination of any of these surface shapes because it uses the principles taught by the Coanda Effect. The principles taught by the Coanda Effect also allow the present invention to utilize a more efficient method of mixing the gases such that there are no hot spot formations along the combustion chamber's inner wall surface. [0011] The Coanda Effect was discovered in 1930 by the Romanian aerodynamicist Henri-Marie Coanda. The Coanda Effect, or the wall attachment effect, is the tendency of a moving fluid, either liquid or gas, to attach itself to a surface and flow along it. As a fluid moves across a surface, a certain amount of friction ("called "skin friction") occurs between the fluid and the surface, which tends to slow the moving fluid. This resistance to the fluid flow pulls the fluid towards the surface, causing it to stick to the surface. Thus, a fluid emerging from a nozzle tends to follow a nearby curved surface, even to the point of bending around corners, if the curvature of the surface or the angle the surface makes with the stream is not too sharp. For example, the Coanda Effect in action is shown when one makes contact with the back of a spoon to a water stream running freely out of a faucet. In this example, the water stream will deflect from the vertical in order to run over the spoon's back. Thus, the Coanda Effect allows the gases, inerted fuel and inerted air, to attach to the combustion chamber's inner surface thereby allowing a variety of different surface shapes. Also, the Coanda Effect allows the gases that are attached to the combustion chamber's inner surface wall to mix and diffuse more uniformly than in the prior art because the gases will be mixing side by side to each other, rather than from on top of each other. Hence, when mixing side by side, there will be no centrifugal forces acting upon the mixing to cause hot spot formations along the combustion chamber's inner surface wall. [0012] It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to disclose and claim a flameless combustion system, apparatus and method absent the use of catalysts or high temperature oxidants. [0013] It is a further object of the instant invention to disclose and claim a system, apparatus and method to achieve flameless combustion with air or other similarly inerted oxidants at a blend temperature between around 1000.degree. F. to about 1400.degree. F., with a preferred temperature of about 1250.degree. F. [0014] It is still a further object of the present invention to disclose and claim a system, apparatus and method to achieve flameless combustion absent the necessity of catalyst or flame holders. [0015] It is yet another object of the present invention to disclose and claim an integrated heater/burner apparatus. As used herein, the term "heater" is defined as "a refractory lined enclosure containing a heat transfer cooling coil" and the term "burner" is defined as "a metering device for fuel gas, air and flue gas. [0016] It is yet another object of the present invention to disclose and claim a system, apparatus and method of inerting the air and inerting the fuel gas prior to the inert air mixing with the inert fuel gas to cause combustion. [0017] Another object of the instant invention is to disclose and claim an apparatus which embodies a combustion chamber that is capable of having an inner surface wall shape that is convex, concave, straight or any combination thereof and still achieve flameless combustion with the means of controlling the rate of diffusion between the inert and the inert fuel gas. [0018] A further object of the instant invention is to eliminate cold and hot spots associated with combustion chambers of the prior art. [0019] Another object of the instant invention is to introduce a system, apparatus and method whereby very uniform and cooler combustion may be precipitated, thus creating low NO.sub.x emissions measured about 3 to 5 ppm. Continue reading... Full patent description for Systems, apparatus and method for flameless combustion absent catalyst or high temperature oxidants Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Systems, apparatus and method for flameless combustion absent catalyst or high temperature oxidants patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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