Boiler World Update

Written by 6:15 pm Ancilliaries

LAMTEC – Your One-Stop Shop for Combustion Management 

LAMTEC is a German company established over 25 years ago with extensive experience in Combustion Management products; all products are developed and manufactured in Germany. LAMTEC has a strong presence in India with a large installed base of combustion related equipment supported and serviced locally through factory-trained service engineers. 

LAMTEC’s four core product lines provide buyers a ‘One-Stop Shop’ for combustion systems. State-of-the-art Burner Management Systems provide failsafe control over the full burner start-up and shutdown cycles as well as flame supervision, modulation and optimised load-control during operation. A comprehensive range of flame scanner devices provide flame detection for simple and complex monitoring applications from ionisation through to multi-flame applications where ‘flame discrimination’ is required. In-situ zirconia-based flue oxygen and COe probes provide analysis for safety monitoring and combustion optimisation such as oxygen trim and CO Control which can significantly reduce fuel usage and costs. Dedicated ignition burners and high energy spark igniters provide reliable ignition sources for a range of burners in challenging applications. 

Flame Ignition 

For the ignition of flames LAMTEC provides two concepts, gas-fired Ignition Burners series GFI and electrical High-Energy Igniters series HEI. Both types are available in several configurations to meet the customers’ application requirements.
The GFI Ignition Burners’ main features are the ability to use a large variety of fuel gases and provide thermal power up to 6MW with long stable flame length. They are designed for intermittent or continuous operation, with IP65 protection and SIL3 certification. GFI Ignition Burners are available for Safe and Hazardous Areas (IECEx and PESO certified) 

The HEI Electrical Igniters are available in two versions, HEI500 and HEI600, for ignition of all gaseous fuels as well as liquid fuels up to HFO grade 6 in burners of any capacity. The HEI provides powerful sparks with very high individual spark energy. They are available for Safe and Hazardous Areas. 

Flame Monitoring 

The safety control of flames (Flame Scanner) has to provide reliable and fast information of the presence or absence of the burner’s flame avoiding explosive mixtures and atmospheres in the combustion chamber. LAMTEC provides Flame Monitors with a large number of design features serving different applications. There is a full line-up of flame detectors and scanners available ranging from small ionisation detectors through to complex microprocessor based self-learning optical (UV or IR) scanners which can be connected to PC software analysing the flame signature. All detectors and scanners are self-checking and so suitable for continuous operation. The optical flame scanners use semiconductor sensors and can be selected for a wide choice of spectral ranges. The top-of-the-line F300K is available as single-sensor (UV or IR) scanner as well as dual sensor (UV & IR) device where evaluation can be based on a variable blend of UV and IR light emission (= variable blend of fuels). 

A large variety of accessories from fibre-optics to purge flanges are available. Several of the Flame Scanners are also available for Hazardous Area (IECEX and PESO certified) and all LAMTEC Flame Scanners are SIL3 certified. 

Combustions Analysers 

Combustion Analysers provide information about the gas composition after combustion allowing burner control for optimisation purpose. The LT1 is the flagship zirconia-based oxygen analyser. Based on the ‘current’ principle the LT1 produces a completely linear response across the complete 0-21% oxygen range and is also suited to more demanding applications such as those found in the process industry. The LT2 is the standard analyser and uses the ‘voltage’ principle to measure the oxygen level in the flue gas. The LT2 is perfectly suited for most combustion applications and is the most popular of LAMTEC’s analysers. The LT1 & LT2 are both complimented with a choice of probes suitable for standard and more challenging environments. Probes are available for temperatures up to 1400°C as well as flue gases with contaminants such as dust and ash. The LT3 and LT3-F are the latest additions to the family and provide a lower cost alternative for standard applications. 

The developments enabled LAMTEC to introduce CO Control as early as 2004 which aims to optimise the fuel/air ratio as close to stoichiometric conditions as possible, reducing costs and emissions further than previously possible. In addition to the oxygen measurement LAMTEC has developed zirconia-based sensors to detect unburned components including CO and any hydrocarbons (COe). The newest development of combustion probes is the combustion-NOx/O2-probe providing information for NOx-control of the combustion. 

All of LAMTEC’s Burner Management Systems and O2/CO analysers are fully compatible with each other using the failsafe LAMTEC SYSTEM BUS (LSB). 

Burner Management Systems 

To complete the lines of Combustion Management, LAMTEC offers a wide range of electronic Burner Management Systems; these form the cornerstone of any combustion control application. The ETAMATIC and ETAMATIC OEM have become industry standards and are renowned for their stability and robustness in the field. The ETAMATIC provides a flame safeguard and fuel/air ratio controller in one unit. The BurnerTronic BT300 was introduced in 2012 and has become a favourite amongst burner OEMs. Developed on brand new hardware and software platforms, the BT300 is one of the few new products to come to the market in recent years. Designed for burners from 500kW to 3MW, the BT300 is a modular system that allows customers to choose only the components they need and so reduce costs. 

For more complex applications, such as variable volume mixed firing, the FMS and VMS offer flexible solutions. Up to eight profile curve sets can be employed to fire a combination of single fuels or any two of three fuels in fixed or variable volume combinations.
Last but not least, CMS is the flagship Burner Management System, a modular, freely configurable burner management system incorporating state of the art technology, setting new standards in burner control automation. 

LAMTEC products are covered by various worldwide approvals including UL, CE and AGA. Many products are EN61508 and certified for use in SIL 2 & SIL 3 systems. Products are also available for use in Hazardous Area (ATEX/IECEX Ex Zone 2 & Ex Zone 1, PESO certificates) and marine applications. 

Mahesh Mhatre with Mick Barstow and Roland Zepeck, LAMTEC Germany