Air Products commissioned a new clean-energy combustion lab at its headquarters in Allentown, Pa. The large-scale, advanced facility will be used to demonstrate how Air Products’ industrial gases and technologies can improve a customer’s energy efficiency and reduce environmental emissions. The lab now gives Air Products the capability to demonstrate and optimize combustion and gasification of a wide variety of fuels. The facility is designed to perform oxyfuel and advanced burner combustion tests for traditional and new market applications served by the company.

Oxyfuel combustion has been applied in markets such as metals, glass and refining with the primary advantages of increased productivity and lower emissions compared to air-firing. One of the key uses for the lab, which will enhance Air Products’ position as a provider of combustion technology, will be to test-fire various types of coal in oxyfuel combustion mode.