Air Burners, Inc4390, SW Cargo Way , Palm City,, United States

Air Burners, Inc. (until autumn of 2011, Air Burners, LLC) is the Number One manufacturer of Air Curtain Burner Systems in the world. We hold the patents on air curtain burners, and for the last couple decades we have been building the best and most rugged machines in the industry.

The primary objective of our machines is protecting the environment, but Air Burners machines are also the most economical method to dispose of vegetative waste, including wood waste . Our machines have been thoroughly tested by the best environmental agencies, including the US EPA. We are proud to have found a good balance between the need for waste disposal and the need to protect the world we live in. No matter which side of the “global warming” issue you are on, we will help you breathe better with less particulates in the air so you can carry-on the debate.

Air Burners’ systems are used worldwide in the construction industry to support land clearing operations and demolition debris removal, for forest fire mitigation efforts and at landfill sites to help reduce the reliance on costly landfills by reducing wood waste and similar such waste streams. They are also used in disaster recovery for clearing the aftermath from storm or flood damage, and to dispose of (diseased) animal carcasses, including BSE, foot-and-mouth disease or CWD affected carcasses. They play a very important role in many contingency plans dealing with bio-security and catastrophic animal emergencies throughout the world.

All of the systems we manufacture are either mobile or portable. The T-Series (T-400, T300, and T-350) trench burner is trailer mounted and requires an earthen trench or pit. They are used mostly for smaller short-term land clearing projects. The T-Series units have been designed for easy mobilization and set-up. The skid-mounted S-Series machines are self-contained with a refractory lined FireBox. They are designed for field use or semi-stationary placement. The refractory lined FireBox allows for more controlled burns without the need for an earthen pit or trench and they are our most efficient machines. The BurnBoss is a smaller trailer mounted towable FireBox.

Our main manufacturing facility is located in Palm City, Florida which is on the Atlantic Coast about two hours North of Miami. We also have offices in Europe and Asia. This allows us to quickly and economically service a worldwide market. Our engineering staff uses the latest 3D CAD software for our equipment designs. We can quickly accommodate changes to support our customers’ particular requirements. The employees of Air Burners are dedicated to maintaining the high standard of design and manufacturing that has made us the recognized leader in air curtain burner equipment and technology.

Air Curtain Burners, also called FireBoxes, were designed principally as a pollution control device. The primary objective of an air curtain machine is to reduce the particulate matter (PM) or smoke, which results from burning clean wood waste. It is sometimes hard to visualize without seeing a machine in operation, but the machines do not burn anything, rather they control the results of something burning.

You could look at it as a pollution control device for open burning. Clean wood waste is loaded into the FireBox, and an accelerant such as Diesel fuel is poured onto the wood and the pile is ignited. This is very similar to starting a campfire. The air curtain is not engaged until the fire has grown in strength or the air curtain may blow the fire out. Once the fire has reached suitable strength, usually in 15 to 20 minutes, the air curtain is engaged. The air curtain then runs at steady state throughout the burn operation and the waste wood is loaded at a rate consistent with the rate of burn. Our smallest machine will burn at a rate of 1 to 2 ton per hour, our largest machine can burn in excess of 10 tons per hour.

Principle

The purpose of the air curtain is to stall or slow down the smoke particles on their way out of the FireBox. In doing this the particles are subjected to the highest temperatures in the FireBox. Stalling the smoke particles in this region just under the air curtain causes them to re-burn, further reducing their size to an acceptable limit. The result is a very clean burn with opacities well under 10% per EPA Method 9 Testing (as compared to open burning which typically can run at 80% to 100% opacity).

Operation

BC_BurningThe picture to the right shows an Air Burners FireBox S-327 completely full and burning while in the background a pile of wood is open burned.

The wood pile that is open burning continued to burn for several days. That entire pile could have been eliminated with the FireBox in less than 2 hours.

For proper operation, the air curtain machine has to be designed to provide a curtain of air over the fire that has a mass flow and velocity that are in balance with the potential mass flow and velocity of the burning wood waste. If the air curtain velocity is too high, the FireBox can become over pressurized and over agitated. The higher pressure will lift the curtain and cause it to become ineffective. The over-agitation will cause embers and ash to be blown out of the FireBox or pit past the ineffective air curtain at a significantly higher rate than normal. If the mass flow of the curtain is too low then the unburned particles (smoke) will penetrate the curtain on the high velocity of the hot gases being generated from the burning wood.