Oxygen for cleaner combustion [ Return towards  Environment  ]

Many industrial processes such as manufacturing glass, aluminum, steel… must heat or melt raw materials. They traditionally use combustion that combines a fuel (fuel oil, natural gas…) and air (21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen).

By replacing air with oxygen, oxycombustion makes it possible to limit nitrous oxide or NOx emissions. These emissions, which are harmful for man and the environment, are produced by the high-temperature reaction of the oxygen and nitrogen present in air.

Air Liquide’s researchers have developed specific burners, adapted to oxygen use. They generate oxycombustion flames (2600°C) that produce much more energy than air combustion flames (1900°C) and optimize the injection of oxygen into industrial furnaces.

Using oxycombustion also make it possible to reduce the energy consumption of the furnace. The cutting-edge expertise Air Liquide has developed is shown by over 800 patents in this field. To this date, 40% of technical glass furnaces have been converted to oxycombustion’s filed and their NOx emissions have been divided by 30.

Today, this expertise allows our engineers to develop oxycombustion processes that will enable CO₂ emissions to be efficiently captured as they are released from industrial units before being buried in the subsoil.