Fuels of the future
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Detail image of the MULTI JET burner head

MULTI JET fuels

Flexibility for energy generation

For any burner designed as a standard single-fuel burner for the drying and heating of the base material, there is the option of extending this burner to use up to three fuels. This conversion turns the burner into a multi-fuel burner that allows for a number of different fuel variants. This means that oil, natural gas, liquid gas and common gaseous substances such as DME or hydrogen as well as solids such as coal dust, BtL and wood dust can be combined.

This flexibility offers a number of benefits. On the one hand, this eliminates plant downtime due to delivery problems or a lack of raw material. On the other, the least-expensive fuel can always be selected in the event of price fluctuations affecting a particular fuel. In addition to this, the flexible use of alternative fuels enables drying without fossile CO₂ emissions. Overall, the burner increases the economic efficiency and flexibility of modern energy generation processes.

Renewable rather than fossil fuels

All over the world, climate action and tougher regulations from state and local governments are also challenging the asphalt industry to reduce its output of greenhouse gases like CO₂. Owners of asphalt mixing plants have to reduce emissions to help secure the future of the plant site. When it comes to mixing asphalt in a cleaner and more sustainable way, changing from oil or coal dust to gas is a major step:

In addition to fossil fuels, there is also an option to use renewable fuels such as wood dust and liquified biomass (biomass-to-liquid). Additionally, they are based on renewable raw materials and can support the diversification of fuel supply. In contrast, fossil fuels are finite resources that will not be available forever, which presents a challenge.

Benninghoven employees, profile

“We are always thinking ahead and developing solutions for tomorrow. Apart from enabling the use of future fuels such as wood dust, BtL and hydrogen, we also focus on direct energy savings.”

Steven Mac Nelly, Head of Development & Design Engineering at BENNINGHOVEN

Fuel: heating oil EL

Oil burner for light heating oil (heating oil EL)

Fuel: heating oil EL

Heating oil made from crude oil is divided into two types: light heating oil (heating oil EL) and heavy heating oil (heating oil S). The quality requirements for heating oil are defined in DIN 51603. Light heating oil can be burned in furnaces, central heating systems and industrial firing plants without preheating. Heavy heating oil, on the other hand, has to be preheated for transport and burning. The systems running on these fossil fuels, however, are increasingly subject to regulations and restrictions.

Burner periphery for heating oil EL

  • BENNINGHOVEN MULTI JET Brenner – attached to the dryer drum
  • For optimum drying and heating of the virgin mineral or RAP material – fuelled by extra light heating oil (EL)
  • Compressed air is used to create an explosive fuel/air mixture within the nozzle.
  • This allows optimum atomisation of the oil particles on the largest possible surface.
  • The fuel/air mixture is then injected/atomised into the burner head.
  • Compressed air 7 bar, oil pressure 12 bar
  • The advantage of this is a short, easily controlled flame and high output regulating range of 1:8.
  • Calorific value of extra light heating oil 42,700 kJ/kg
  • Alternative: oil return flow nozzle

Fuel: gas

Liquid gas burner and natural gas burner

Advantages from efficiency

The BENNINGHOVEN gas burners can burn liquid gas already during the liquid phase, without first having to transform it into a gaseous state. This means that no additional periphery such as an evaporator is necessary and therefore no additional energy is required either.

Liquid gas burners and natural gas burners have the same mechanical structure. They differ only in their periphery, i.e. how the fuel is introduced into the burners.

Burner head

  • In the burner head, the fuel is gasified while being mixed with the oxygen and then ignited.
  • The burner head is made of highly heat resistant material.
  • The special geometry also determines the shape of the flame.

Fuel: liquid gas

Liquid gas, referred to as “associated gas”, is generated during the extraction of crude oil or natural gas. This associated gas used to be simply released into the atmosphere or burned in many cases. Today, more and more regions worldwide have banned this burning, which has an additional positive impact on the increasing availability of liquid gas.

Fuel: hydrogen

Hydrogen drying system from BENNINGHOVEN

MULTI JET burner with hydrogen

GAME CHANGER – the burner generation that can also use 100 % green hydrogen

  • Zero CO₂*
  • Use of 100 % green hydrogen
  • Low NOₓ technology
  • CO₂-free asphalt production*

* Energy-intensive thermal drying and heating process for virgin and RAP material, carbon-free thanks to green hydrogen.

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Fuel: wood dust

Still burning in the future

Wood dust as a fuel option

Wood dust can be used as a fuel from biogenic raw materials. With the MULTI JET wood dust burner, BENNINGHOVEN has made it possible to use wood dust in asphalt mixing plants and expanded the portfolio of its own burner technology.

The development engineers at BENNINGHOVEN have identified the ideal particle size of the wood dust, which is produced mainly from scrap wood and wood waste. Identifying the optimum grading curve for the fuel is important for the flame geometry of the burner – and therefore for the effectiveness of heating the virgin mineral or the recycled asphalt (RAP). Several Benninghoven customers are already successfully using the MULTI JET wood dust burner.

Solids burner

Investing in a solids burner entails a low risk and is future-proof as the burner design means that coal dust as well as wood dust can be used as fuels. This means that the burner can initially be run with coal dust and then later switched over to carbon-neutral wood dust. In light of the first supply bottlenecks for coal dust, wood is already becoming increasingly important as a sustainable fuel.

Wood dust burner periphery

The complete periphery includes the burner and the dosing unit. The interface to the customer systems is the inlet to the dosing unit. The wood crusher and the wood silo are provided by the customer.

Burner
The wood dust is fed into the burner with precision dosing by means of the feed fan and the dosing unit. In the burner head, a separate auxiliary flame then ignites the material. The control range for wood dust with pilot flame is 1:6; the calorific value of wood dust is approx. 18 MJ/kg depending on the type of wood.

The secondary fuel, e.g. heating oil EL, liquid gas or natural gas, is used for the support flame.

Dosing system for dust-type solid fuel

The wood dust dosing system with storage tank has a capacity of 2.5 m³ and is installed at the discharge of the wood dust silo. In the tank, two agitators prevent the formation of bridges in the wood dust. A speed-controlled dosing screw releases the fuel in accordance with the required burner output and transports the wood dust into a blow-through rotary valve, which forms the interface to the conveying pipe. From there, the wood dust is blown into the head of the burner with a feeder fan and pipe.

Starting material on the asphalt mixing plant

  • Wood pellets
  • Wood chips
  • Wood dust

Comprehensive customer support – always on the safe side

The owner is obligated to ensure that the overall plant (for example the silo with the dosing system) is checked as part of a regular inspection as per the German industrial safety regulations (BetrSichV). Outside of Germany, the systems are subject to mandatory testing – the applicable national laws and directives must be observed.

Explosion protection (ATEX) especially for coal dust and wood dust

Fuel: BtL

Energy from biomass

The BtL principle

The principle of producing biomass-to-liquid (BtL) fuels is based on liquefying biomass.

In the case of wood as a starting material, thermo-chemical conversion processes in a reactor use high temperature and high pressure to turn the cellulose-rich wood into pyrolysis oil.

The further processing steps are cleaning, synthesis and refining of the pyrolysis oil to produce BtL fuels.

BtL burners for using biomass as a sustainable alternative

Another significant development in the energy market is the use of liquefied biomass (BtL). BtL can be produced from plant waste such as straw, wood or energy crops like maize and oilseed rape. BENNINGHOVEN now also offers an innovative

solution for the use of BtL as a fuel: the MULTI JET BtL burner. Like wood dust, biomass-to-liquid is also considered carbon-neutral. And like all MULTI-JET burners, BENNINGHOVEN BtL burners can also be run with other fuels such as oil, coal dust and gas. The new BENNINGHOVEN burners therefore offer plant operators a future-proof investment option: continuing to use fossil fuels in the short term while being ready to switch to renewable fuels quickly.

Customer-specific burner settings on the burner test rig

For wood or wood waste as a starting product, the challenge lies in the processing of the natural material that can vary greatly in its chemical composition. These fluctuations affect the final BtL product. Smaller fluctuations can be compensated by adapting the preheating temperature. Larger fluctuations or fuel changes, however, require adjustments on site.

Customers therefore send their heating medium to Wittlich in a stainless steel container so the correct basic parameters for the burner can be determined at the BENNINGHOVENBENNINGHOVEN factory for new fuels. There, the fuel is tested extensively and the optimum burner settings are identified.

Fuel: coal dust

Coal dust burner (brown coal or hard coal)

Fuel: coal dust

  • Coal dust is a solid, dust-type fuel that is made from brown coal or black coal. This dust is produced during extraction of the coal from the deposit or the dust is specially produced in milling plants.
  • Coal dust is a fossil fuel and is regarded as a cost-effective energy source.

Burner periphery for coal dust

  • BENNINGHOVEN MULTI JET brenner – attached to the dryer drum
  • Coal dust is fed into the burner with precision dosing using the supply fan and coal dust dosing system.
  • In the burner head, a separate auxiliary flame then ignites the material.
  • This is switched off at a burner output of 20 % of the nominal burner output.
  • The solid material flame continues to burn independently from this point onwards or is automatically activated again when the value falls below the set value.
  • The fuel for the ignition flame can also be used as an independent fuel.
  • Control range 1:5 for coal dust only and 1:8 for coal dust with auxiliary flame
  • Calorific value of coal dust 20,900 kJ/m³
  • Burner control, output control, coupled control and switchover between the fuels are implemented with a type-approved control system.

Coal dust dosing system

The BENNINGHOVEN MULTI JET burner, which is designed as an oil burner in standard models, can be expanded to utilise up to three other fuels. This turns the burner into a combination burner, which means that other types of fuel such as oil, natural gas, liquid gas, heavy oil, BtL fuels (liquefied biomass) and coal dust are all available as fuels. The lignite dust is fed into the feed pipe with the help of the coal dust dosing system (flange-mounted onto the outlet valve of the coal dust silo) and blown into the head of the burner by a conveyor fan.

This well-designed coal dust dosing system offers plant owners a number of key benefits:

  • Functionality
  • Fuel consumption
  • Safety

Clever concept.

Continuous material flow into the coal dust dosing line
CLF (continuous lignite flow)

> Low pulsation
> Constant, steady and uniform flame
> Clean flame – complete burning of the coal dust

Maximum safety.

Tested quality for a guaranteed process and functional reliability

> ATEX tested, TÜV certified
> The coal dust dosing system is manufactured in accordance with the new ATEX Directive (2014/34/EU) and has type approval: TÜV 19 ATEX 8337
> Approved for use in zone 21

Done and dusted

Optimum customer benefit. Efficient and cost-effective, ensuring high usability and outstanding performance

> With the correct burner settings, coal dust is a clean fuel and the equal of any of the other fuels used for mineral heating
> Complies with the stringent requirements of TA Luft and all related technical codes

Fuel savings*

Optimum customer benefit. Efficient and cost-effective, ensuring high usability and outstanding performance

> Auxiliary flame switch-off at approx. 20% burner output
> Auxiliary flame consumption: reduced from 80 l/h to approx. 50 l/h

* pependent on BKS calorific value/quality in each case

Optimised burner settings

Optimum customer benefit. Efficient and cost-effective, ensuring high usability and outstanding performance
> Vastly improved control range
> 1:8 with auxiliary flame, 1:5 for coal dust only
> Especially interesting for customers running a high RAP system rate, i.e. two burners run in parallel
> Enables the virgin mineral burner to be operated at a correspondingly optimised, economical rate
> Especially when taking into account the limited heat input of the burner(s) to 19.8 MW (German Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Act)

Benninghoven value

Using technology to work towards a more efficient use of energy and raw materials is the challenge of today and tomorrow. Solutions from Benninghoven can support the reduction of energy consumption and emissions while enabling asphalt mixing plants to run with a high reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) content to ensure the future of the facility.

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BENNINGHOVEN technologies

Asphalt production, recycling systems, combustion technology, control systems and bitumen technology – with BENNINGHOVEN technologies, every customer can find the right solution for their location, according to the specific requirements and conditions.

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