ABSTRACT
Ideally, a combustor should be supplied with just the right amount of air to completely burn all of the fuel, which is referred to as the stoichiometric or theoreti cal amount of air (see Chapter 4). However, in actual practice, industrial combustors operate with an excess amount of combustion air due to imperfect mixing of the air and fuel and to accommodate swings in vari ables like fuel composition and ambient conditions. It is common for heaters and furnaces to operate with about 10%-15% excess air, which corresponds to about 2%-3% excess 0 2.
