R & D
NORA Technical Workshop
Meets in Newport RI at the Southern New England Energy Conference.
presentation underscored the need for the oilheat industry
to plan for renewable fuels and integrated renewable/liquid
fuel systems.
John Battaglioli, Babington Technologies, Rocky
Mount, NC, reported on the progress in the development
and commercialization of the Babington Air-Atomized
burner. Babington’s approach is an oil burner with
capability for modulation, low firing rates on and selftuning
of air/fuel ratio. This burner is based on the novel
Babington atomizer that has achieved success as an oil
burner for military cooking applications.
Jason Targoff, Novatio Engineering, Waltham, MA,
gave a presentation on their vaporizing oil burner which
can, potentially, enable heating oil to be used in gas-type
appliances.
Rich Sweetser, representing NORA, opened the biofuels
discussion with a review of a recent update to the analysis
of the impact of biofuels on greenhouse gas emissions. He
showed that at a biodiesel blend level of about 15% (B15)
heating oil and natural gas are equivalent. At higher
biodiesel blend levels heating oil scores better than gas.
Dr. Thomas Butcher, NORA Director of Research,
presented the results of a field study on fuel quality,
which involved sampling from home tanks with high (20%
biodiesel and perhaps more) and low (5% biodiesel and
below) blend levels. The study also included considerable
follow-up lab analysis and studies. While the results
showed fuel quality to be generally good, it also uncovered
an interesting and strong impact of copper exposure on
results of the Rancimat stability test. Efforts to correlate
this with actual fuel quality did not show a strong
effect. Dr. Butcher reported that studies in this area are
continuing.
Steve Howell, National Biodiesel Board, presented
results from a research study on long-term biodiesel
stability. This explored the potential to re-additize fuels
periodically in long-term storage and that storage periods
up to several years were possible.
Dr. Butcher also presented results of a NORA study on
the impact of biodiesel blend levels on cad cell resistance
signal. With higher biodiesel blend levels, cad cell
resistance decreases. In one test, for example, changing
the fuel from B0 to B30 blend, without adjusting the air
shutter, changed the steady state resistance from 458 to
605 ohms. Further increasing the biodiesel blend level to
B50 increases the cad cell resistance to 951 ohms. The
figure below shows the general trend observed. At higher
biodiesel blend levels the burner can be re-tuned, leading
to lower cad cell steady state resistance. Example: change
in cad cell resistance with increasing biodiesel content – no
change in air shutter setting
Mike Casatta, Biofine LLC, Framingham, MA, gave a
talk on a new wood-waste derived biofuel, Ethyl Levulinate
(EL). Dr. Butcher joined Mr. Casatta to outline the plans
for a field trial of this fuel at the 10% blend level in Maine
during the winter of 2017-2018.
Ted Olszewski, R.W. Beckett Corp., North Ridgeville,
OH, outlined and described a series of tests underway at
The National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA)
held its second Oilheat Technical Workshop
on September 18th–19th in Newport, RI. The
workshop was held in partnership with the Southern
New England Energy Conference.
The opening address was given by Arthur Marin,
Director of Northeast States for Coordinated
Air Use Management
(NESCAUM). NESCAUM
is an association of air
quality state agencies in
the Northeast (Connecticut,
Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Vermont, New Jersey,
and New York). Among
NESCAUM’s missions is
to assist member states
in implementing national
Marin
environmental programs required under the Clean
Air Act and other federal legislation. Marin presented
a vision for the transition of the Northeast to carbonneutral
by 2050. This vision includes a dramatic
increase in renewable electric power production and
a conversion to heat-pump residential systems. The
22 ICM November/December 2017