LO-NOx burner

A LO NOx burner is a type of burner that is typically used in utility boilers to produce steam and electricity.

Around 1986 John Joyce (of Bowin Cars fame), an influential Australian inventor, first learned about oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) and their role in the production of smog and acid rain. His first introduction to the complexities of the subject was brought about by the work of Fred Barnes and Dr John Bromley from the state Energy Commission of Western Australia.

The vast majority of the research and development stretching back over twenty years was about large scale industrial burners and complex mechanisms which, in the end, did not produce what one would consider low NO_x (2 ng/J or ~ 4 ppm at 0% O₂ on dry basis).

In fact at that time, 15 ng/J NO₂ appears to have been considered low NO₂. The one clear message that did flow through all the mass of information he studied, was the effect of temperature on the formation of NO_x.

In the late 1980s, Health and Environment Authorities in Australia raised concerns about the indoor air quality and the extent that particularly older style unflued gas heaters were contributing to higher than acceptable levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). Consequently in 1989 the New South Wales Department of School Education initiated an extensive investigation of nitrogen dioxide in schools throughout New South Wales. As an interim measure the Health Authorities advised that a level of 0.3 ppm NO₂ should become the upper limit for classrooms. The Australian Gas Association in turn reduced the indoor emission rate of NO₂ for unflued gas heaters from 15 to 5 ng/J and this remains the current limit. The New South Wales government, through the Public Works Department, also re-evaluated alternative methods of heating classrooms, to ensure a safe and healthy environment for students.

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