What is a burner management system (BMS)?

Picture this. A process burner flame goes out, and natural gas vents for days. Jacob, 19-year-old pipeline operator-in-training drives to a wellhead. Combine inexperience with a strike of a match to light a cigarette, and Jacob meets with a tragic demise.
 

Senseless, avoidable tragic accidents occur way too frequently around process burners. A burner management system (BMS) is a method a company uses to assure the safe startup, operation and shut down of process burners, which are commonly used in many industries, including oil and natural gas.

Throughout industrial processes, heaters are used to heat fluid and gas. When a BMS is not used, and a pilot flame goes out the pilot burner gas will still flow, but more significantly the temperature control will “call for” heat and the main burner gas will vent until it is manually shut off. This creates a very expensive situation, more importantly a dangerous one for those like Jacob in my earlier example.

A BMS manages the gas fired burners on process heaters. The system includes a flame detector and fail-safe mechanisms designed to stop the flow of gas at the pilot and main, and safely shut down the operation until it can be activated again. The BMS can automatically re-light the heater when it’s prudent to function and integrates with the system’s data acquisition system.

Using a burner management system offers many benefits to the user:

Safety – A BMS minimizes the risk of venting natural gas which creates unstable and dangerous situations. With the touch of a button, the systems can be automatically re-lit, and the stakeholder doesn’t have to rely on sending a worker to light the burner using a torch around natural gas; often a precarious situation.

Environmental – Aside from the obvious environmental threat from a natural gas explosion, when using a BMS the burner’s increased efficiency reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

The Bottom Line – While one can ascertain the expense of lost natural gas, you cannot put a price on the loss of life.

In a pilot-less BMS the pilot fuel can be saved while process efficiency improved. In fact, even without a failure it is common to have the unit pay for itself very quickly. Additionally, by reducing GHG emissions the stakeholder can reduce their carbon credit exposure also.

The benefits of using a BMS seem to significantly outweigh the risks associated with a non BMS system.

We’ve recently taken on a new product line, the SureFire Burner Management System. My appeal to this product is its sparkless ignition system. To my knowledge, the SureFire BMS is the only burner management system with a sparkless ignition which seems to be an attractive benefit when operating around flammable gas. The product is engineered, manufactured and serviced in the United States, making it a one of a kind. You can learn more information about SureFire on Burner Management Systems.