White Paper

An ROI Approach to the New Combustion Safety Standards

August 2015

Recent changes and updates to Burner Management standards mean that many of the fired devices in
use today in the process industries need to be upgraded. Many of these devices still operate with
obsolete protection that has needed to be upgraded for years. These upgrades are often not
implemented because there is no perceived return on investment. This whitepaper will introduce a
solution that will upgrade the Burner Management System, increase burner safety, and provide Return
on Investment.

Comprehensive Combustion Solutions Maximize Process Output and the Bottom Line

Operating and maintaining safe and fuel efficient industrial furnaces, process heaters, and boilers is
crucial to the overall sustainability of the facility. In many industries such as oil and gas refining,
chemical, petrochemical and power generation, the cost of fuel consumed by some of these systems
can be in excess of $10,000,000 annually so an efficiency improvement of just 1 percent would improve
the bottom line by $100,000 annually.

Further improvements to the bottom line can be achieved by improving reliability and safety to reduce
the number of costly shutdowns and hazardous conditions that can lead to injuries, loss of life,
environmental harm, and/or result in millions of dollars of physical damage to equipment --- all while
increasing efficiency and reducing environmental emissions.

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There is often reluctance to invest in combustion safety systems because the financial benefits
associated with the system or system upgrades can be difficult to quantify. However upgrading both the
combustion controls and the safety system as one project could allow the energy savings associated
with the improved combustion controls to fund the safety system upgrade.

A Four Layer Approach to Combustion Safety and Control

Burner management and combustion controls can consist of four functional layers.
Flame Monitoring
Burner Management (discrete functionality for timing, purges)
Fuel Air Ratio Monitoring
Combustion Control

The first two layers relate to traditional Burner Management. The third layer is an additional safety
layer that is often absent in legacy systems. The fourth layer (combustion control) has a profound
influence on the operation and efficiency of the burner.

The balance of this whitepaper will focus on how upgrading burner management and combustion
controls can improve the bottom line and process safety while at the same time reducing the carbon
footprint of the burner.

The Combustion Process

The combustion process entails the burning of a mixture of fuel and air. In ideal operation
(stoichiometric combustion), every molecule of fuel and air is consumed so that the burner operates at
the highest possible thermal efficiency to meet demand with the smallest carbon footprint.
Stoichiometric combustion is physically challenging to sustain so burners are typically operated with
some amount of excess air to ensure that all fuel molecules are consumed.

Excess air reduces burner efficiency and increases fuel consumption by approximately one percent for
each 1.5 percent increase of oxygen in the stack gas. Therefore it is desirable to reduce the amount of
excess air to reduce fuel consumption which lowers the carbon footprint of the burner. However

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reducing the amount of excess air too much will lead to incomplete combustion and the presence of
carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons in the stack gases which can create a potentially hazardous
operating condition. On the other hand, increasing the amount of carbon monoxide in the stack gases
by just one percent will increase fuel consumption by approximately five percent.

Seemingly small process changes can have an enormous impact on fuel consumption. Stated
differently, the precise control of the amounts of air and fuel in the mixture is important because too
much or too little of either component will result in inefficient combustion. In addition, many factors can
complicate and compromise burner operation including variations in fuel density, fuel composition, fuel
heating value, atmospheric conditions that affect combustion air, burner conditions such as fouling,
and/or burner load.

Mass Fuel and Air Flow Measurement

Accurate and reliable field measurement devices are essential to operate the combustion process
safely and economically. Flowmeters and instrumentation that respond quickly to flow changes are
desirable for the burner to reasonably follow load changes and not hamper performance. Choosing the
ideal flow measurement technology and the compensation technique that accounts for actual operating
conditions is essential for improving burner performance and safety. Pressure, temperature and
sometimes density are measured to enable calculation of the mass flow from the raw flow
measurements to obtain the accurate mass flow measurements to operate the burner near the optimal
air to fuel ratio for the specific burner.

Oxygen and Carbon Monoxide Trim

Emissions analyzers are used to enable fine-tuned automated adjustments to trim the amount of air fed
to the burner in order to reduce the amount of fuel consumed and improve efficiency. Utilizing trim
limits the magnitude of control changes that could occur should the analyzer drift and/or fail. Analyzer
accuracy and stability are paramount to achieve increased energy savings and operate safely.
Analyzers such as in-situ laser gas analyzers that can quickly provide accurate measurement of
oxygen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, NOx and moisture tend to mitigate many operational and
maintenance problems that are associated with the more established analyzer techniques.

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Oxygen trim is the most common control strategy implemented to maintain the desired percentage of
excess oxygen. As previously stated reducing excess air (oxygen) increases fuel efficiency and also
reduces the carbon footprint of the burner. However operators will often adjust the burner to operate
with excess air settings above the nominal burner excess air specification so that the burner can more
readily absorb process variations that routinely occur. This provides an opportunity to reduce the
excess air and increase fuel efficiency in actual operation. Further, the nominal excess air specification
typically represents the worst case condition so it is often possible to operate the burner at excess
oxygen levels below the nominal specification for extended periods of time --- thereby realizing
additional fuel efficiency and additional fuel savings.

Carbon monoxide trim control allows operation whereby the air is reduced until the carbon monoxide in
the stack gas reaches its set point. This operating point is both economically and environmentally
advantageous with todays high efficiency low NOx burners. Significant efficiency gains, substantial
energy cost savings, and lower NOx emissions can be attributed to trim controls --- plus they can assist
the operator by adjustment automatically in response to process variations. However the analyzers
need to operate reliably, measure accurately, and respond quickly to achieve these objectives.

Burner Management and Combustion Control Systems

Burner management systems monitor the presence and sometimes the intensity of the flame, perform
discrete functions for combustion chamber purging and sequential timing, to ensure that a fuel-rich
mixture is not present at the trial for ignition, and shut down the burner to avoid unsafe operating
conditions. These systems were traditionally relay based systems designed for reliability. As such,
they were typically difficult to modify --- often by design. Further, they had few (if any) diagnostics and
contained components subject to failure which would result in nuisance trips. In contrast, current
burner management systems may have sophisticated diagnostics that are derived from highly reliable
SIL certified programmable logic controllers. This results in better diagnostics, fewer nuisance trips,
and more reliable operation.

Combustion control systems adjust the fuel and air flows based upon the amount of heat that the
process demands from the burner. Combustion control was traditionally implemented in a process

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control system such as a distributed control system, non-safety programmable logic controller, and/or
discrete controllers that could be microprocessor-based, electronic or pneumatic. The operation of
these combustion control systems can be enhanced by utilizing SIL certified devices that are more
reliable and more secure.

Burner management systems must comply with one or more of the following standards: IEC 61508, IEC
61511, NFPA 85, NFPA 86, NFPA 87, API556, or CSA B149.3. Among other requirements,
programmable logic controllers used in burner management systems must be third-party certified to
safety integrity level 2 (SIL 2) or higher per IEC 61508 and contain diagnostic capability. Some current
standards allow burner management and combustion control functions to be performed in a single SIL
rated programmable logic controller. The requirements for doing this include third-party certification to
SIL 3 with partitions between the safety logic software and the process control software to protect
against alteration by unauthorized users.

Relying on a single burner management and combustion control system is often not prudent because a
single hardware failure, a single software failure, or human error could lead to a catastrophic event.
However the use of multi-tasking systems can allow combustion control and burner management to be
reliability combined into one controller while maintaining partitioned software functionality that reduces
the probability of inadvertent modification. At the users option, reliability can be further improved by
performing combustion control in a separate SIL rated logic solver.

Safety Lifecycle Activities

Each of the following activities associated with burner management and combustion control systems
are important and need to be addressed and documented.
Assessment and Specifications
Design and Engineering
Installation and Commissioning
Validation
Operation and Maintenance
Modification
Decommissioning

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These activities should be self-explanatory, but the detail involved with formally describing and
documenting that each of these activities is performed properly by competent personnel with
appropriate approvals and confirmations can be overwhelming. For example, the first activity
(Assessment and Specification) involves the development of a safety plan, SIL assessment,
specifications and procedures, concept design, development of a functional safety management system
that complies with IEC 61511, and training of personnel. Selecting a supplier that has Safety Lifecycle
experience is paramount.

Burner Management and Combustion Control System Design and Engineering

Designing and engineering entails the basic and detailed engineering of the field instrumentation,
burner management system and combustion control system, SIL verification, control system
configuration and integration, inspection and factory acceptance test, and training. It is essential for the
end user to form a design team that includes a combustion expert with extensive knowledge of the
combustion process, fuel-to-air ratio controls, cross-limit controls, burner management systems, and
field instrumentation to the device level. It is also important to include an instrumentation expert with
detailed experience with stack gas analyzers, fuel analyzers, and flow measurement devices.

The design and engineering team should possess detailed knowledge of the process and any variables
that can affect the process during operation as well as access to the existing equipment, field devices,
and instrumentation to properly evaluate its suitability for use in the upgraded system --- particularly
with regard to their reliability and accuracy.

The installation of advanced flame monitoring products, in-situ laser gas analyzers (mentioned above),
fuel analyzers, and more accurate and reliable flowmeters should be considered to improve the
reliability and performance of the overall burner operation.

The combustion solution provider should be selected and engaged in the safety life cycle activities as
early as possible and preferably before the safety instrumented system design and engineering activity
has commenced. Some providers can supply design and engineering expertise to supplement the
users internal resources.

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Partial stroking valves can help ensure that the valves are functioning properly without inordinately
disturbing the process while in many cases enabling valve maintenance testing intervals to be stretched
into years (instead of months). This can reduce maintenance requirements and enable continuous
burner operation for longer periods of time. The user should ensure that the burner management and
combustion control system includes the inherent ability to provide partial stroke testing - especially
when the burner will be operated continuously for long periods of time.

To reduce the possibility of inadvertent errors and improved configuration efficiency, burner
management and combustion control systems should be configured using third-party certified function
blocks. The user should ensure that these function blocks are compliant with IEC 61508 and IEC
61511 and have been proven in use and approved compliant by a certified testing authority such as
TV. In addition, such certification will help the user obtain approval from the regulating authority
having jurisdiction over the installation.

These are but a few of the considerations necessary to design and engineer burner management and
combustion control systems. Reduced user organization staffing levels often limit the amount of in-
house expertise and resources available to design and engineer burner management and combustion
control systems. Relying on an independent safety solution provider with extensive integration
experience can be beneficial to implementing these projects in a technically correct, safe and timely
manner while incorporating the best available functionality and the latest technology.

Best Practice

HIMA, a company focused on safety solutions, offers a comprehensive burner safety and combustion
control solution designed to improve reliability and maximize production by locating the burner
management system and combustion control system in SIL 3 rated safety systems that utilize TV
Rheinland certified function blocks that can be easily programmed, documented and maintained.
These systems can be easily integrated with Basic Process control systems (BPCS) in an automation
environment and are Achilles certified for cybersecurity to ensure high availability and reliable
combustion control system performance. HIMA also offers safety lifecycle services like design,
engineering, integration, installation, commissioning, validation, maintenance and 24-hour ongoing
support that can improve burner operability, efficiency, safety and reliability.

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Conclusion

The benefits of making the burner safer and more reliable by replacing the burner management system
can be difficult to justify because they are difficult to quantify. On the other hand, calculating fuel
savings resulting from improved combustion control is more straightforward. Therefore, upgrading both
the combustion control and burner management systems with SIL rated safety systems that can
communicate with each other and higher level systems can improve both safety and reliability can often
be justified with energy savings derived from the improved combustion controls and reducing the
carbon footprint of the burner.

Author

Mike Madzy
Burner Management Business Development Manager
HIMA Americas Inc.
Houston, Texas
Mobile: 713.449.7788
Email: mmadzy@hima-americas.com

Press Contact
HIMA Americas Inc.
Nicole Pringal
Sr. Marketing and Public Relations Manager
5353 W Sam Houston Parkway N., Suite 130
Houston, Texas 77041, USA
Phone +1 713 482 2149 I Cell +1 713 876 9828
npringal@hima-americas.com
www.hima-americas.com

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Appendix

Best practice: HIMAs comprehensive burner safety and combustion control solution

About HIMA
The HIMA group is the world's leading independent provider of solutions for safety-critical applications.
With more than 35,000 installed systems and TV-certified hardware and software, HIMA qualifies as
the safety automation industrys technology leader. For over 45 years the world's largest oil, gas,
chemical, pharmaceutical and energy-producing companies have relied on HIMA products, services
and consulting to provide uninterrupted plant operations and protection for people and the environment.
HIMA solutions are also leading the way to increased safety and profitability in the rail industry, logistics
and machine operations. A family-owned safety specialist, HIMA operates from over 50 locations
worldwide, has a workforce of approximately 850 employees and in fiscal year 2014 generated sales of
121 million. HIMA has operated in the Americas since the early 1980s. Its headquarters for the
Americas is located in Houston, Texas. Discover more at www.hima-americas.com

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