Novel burner system to significantly cut CO₂ & NO_x emissions 

Athens, Greece -- January 26, 2021 -- Grecian Magnesite S.A. (“GM”), has announced today the successful operation of a novel versatile/LN burner system, which is expected to significantly cut CO₂ & NO_x emissions from the company’s rotary kilns in Yerakini mines & works.

The 20 MW novel burner has been designed & constructed (under the BAMBOO EU-funded project) in GM’s workshop with the supervision and insights of the company's engineers, and state-of-the-art Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations.

The burner has been initially installed in one of the company’s rotary kilns (No3) and after rigorous industrial tests with very positive results, it was decided to install the new burner system to the remaining rotary kilns.

Despite the new burner’s enhanced combustion efficiency, desired flame shape and intensity control (leading to better control of the kiln’s temperature profile) the main advantage of the new system is its capability of multimode operation, i.e ability to combust mixtures of fossil fuels (heavy oil, pet-coke, natural gas) + biomass, with the later in considerable higher ratios, resulting in:

1. reducing the dependence on fossil fuel,
2. cutting CO₂ emissions using carbon-neutral biomass,
3. cutting NO_x emissions by using a low-NOx burner and biomass fuel,
4. allowing flexible energy consumption according to the market prices,
5. allowing the possibility for waste heat recovery.

About BAMBOO

BAMBOO is a EU-funded project developing new technologies for energy and resource efficiency challenges in intensive industries

These technologies will be adapted, tested and validated under real production conditions focusing on three main innovation pillars: waste heat recovery, electrical flexibility and waste streams valorization.

BAMBOO will empower intensive industries to make better decisions and become more competitive in the use of natural resources in a broader context.

Many waste streams have a valuable calorific content and can be valorized as fuels for other processes, thus being a potential revenue stream for the industries. Therefore, BAMBOO will deploy technologies and processes that allow the upgrading of these streams and their valorization (through improved combustion monitoring systems that enable the replacement of fossil fuels by off-gases).

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and Innovation program under grant agreement N°820771. It has been an ongoing project since 2018, expected to conclude by 2022.