Introduction - High Temperature Air Combustion: From Energy Conservation to Pollution Reduction - page 2

T rade and Industry (MITI) in Japan embarked on the Development of High Perfor-

. The project, aimed at developing
an outstanding energy-saving technology for the 21st century, focused on significant
reduction in energy consumption and simultaneous contribution to environmental
preservation.
The

mance Industrial Furnaces and the Like Project

has been
implemented since 1993 as one of the activities of New Energy and Industrial
Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The objective of this project has
been to advocate the establishment of a basic concept for innovative technology.
The research and development on the above-mentioned advanced combustion tech-
nology have been mainly conducted by the industrial sector during the 7-year history
of the project. The fundamental research related to the technology has been carried
out by the academic sector through cooperative exchange of information with the
industrial sector. This research cooperation between academia and industry has
played an important role in promoting the unique research and development of the
project.

Development of High Performance Industrial Furnaces Project

1.1.2 R P E E C

EDUCTION OF OLLUTANT MISSIONS AND NERGY RISIS

Before the 1960s, the comb ustion technology had made magnificent progress. But,

from the 1960s into the early 1970s, two new serious problems have emerged that
result from combustion technologies.
The first was the problem of pollutant emission generated by combustion, such
as sulfur oxide (SO

The other was the require-
ment for efficient use of energy caused by the oil crisis.
In developed countries the problem of air pollution has been caused by the
combustion exhaust emissions brought by the rapid expansion of industrial produc-
tion and the remarkable prevalence of motorization in the private sector. It has
become a serious social problem. Legal regulations for the restriction of pollutant
emissions have been enforced. To cope with this problem, each industry worked
intensively on the development of combustion methods and combustion units with
low levels of pollutant emission. During the development process of new combustion
technology, a particular focus was on low NO

), nitrogen oxide (NO ), and smog.

x x

urners and engines. Intensive
research was conducted on the mechanisms controlling the generation and reduction
of NO

b

x

wledged that the achievements of Japanese industry
in the development of new combustion technologies on low NO

. It is also widely ackno

x

ve been
superb and well recognized by the technical community. This is supported by the
many patents taken by industry.
With the oil crisis of 1973, the problem of the energy crisis was suddenly
highlighted. Every energy-consuming sector has placed emphasis on the develop-
ment of a combustion system with low fuel consumption. Furthermore, attention
was focused on such issues as the effective combustion of alcohol, various low-
grade fuels, etc., which had not been used before as principal fuels. An ultra-lean
mixture is defined as a fuel/air lean premixed gas mixture with the fuel concentration
near to the lower flammability limit. Because combustion of this ultra-lean mixture
had not been possible under usual conditions, a new method to accelerate the reaction

emission ha

x