Fired heaters are among the largest energy consumers in a refinery or petrochemical facility, making combustion efficiency critical to both operating costs and emissions. Learn how continuous oxygen and carbon monoxide monitoring helped optimize combustion, improve heater performance, reduce emissions, and achieve measurable fuel savings.
The Challenge
Fired heaters play a vital role in refining and petrochemical operations, supplying the heat required for processes such as crude distillation, catalytic reforming, hydroprocessing, and aromatics production. However, achieving optimal combustion can be difficult when fuel composition changes, process conditions fluctuate, or combustion conditions vary throughout the furnace.
To maintain safe operation, many facilities intentionally operate with excess air. While conservative, this approach often reduces thermal efficiency, increases fuel consumption, and contributes to higher greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional combustion measurement methods may also struggle to provide representative, real-time data across large fired heaters.
The Solution
To improve combustion performance, the facility implemented continuous, in-situ monitoring of oxygen (O₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations using tunable diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS). Unlike conventional extractive analyzers, TDLS measures gas concentrations directly across the furnace, providing real-time average combustion measurements without sample extraction or conditioning.
With continuous visibility into combustion conditions, operators were able to optimize the air-to-fuel ratio while maintaining safe operating margins.
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The Results
Continuous combustion monitoring helped the facility:
- Improve combustion efficiency
- Reduce fuel consumption
- Lower CO₂ and NOₓ emissions
- Maintain safer combustion conditions
- Improve overall heater reliability
- Increase process stability
In refinery applications including crude distillation, catalytic reforming, aromatics production, and hydrodesulfurization, implementations of this approach have achieved fuel savings of approximately 5% while improving overall fired heater performance.
Why Combustion Monitoring Matters
Fired heaters represent one of the largest consumers of energy within a refinery. Even small improvements in combustion efficiency can significantly reduce operating costs while helping facilities meet environmental objectives.
Continuous monitoring of oxygen and carbon monoxide provides operators with the information needed to:
- Optimize excess air
- Reduce fuel waste
- Improve heat transfer efficiency
- Minimize emissions
- Detect combustion imbalances sooner
- Extend heater life through more stable operation
The TechStar Difference
Optimizing fired heater performance requires more than selecting the right analyzer. It starts with understanding the process, evaluating combustion conditions, and applying the appropriate measurement technology for each application.
TechStar partners with refining and petrochemical facilities to develop combustion monitoring strategies that improve efficiency, strengthen reliability, and support long-term operational performance through application expertise, instrumentation, and local engineering support.
