Condensing boiler capable of burning lease gas
I have been researching installation of a Condensing Boiler to supply hydronic heat and indirect DHW and started to research boilers. Several boilers were recommended to me in my previous post and I contacted my HVAC contractor and told him what I wanted to install (HTP UFT-080w) and he immediately said he had concerns. He stated that he was not sure if modulating boilers are capable of burning lease gas due to lease gas’ fluctuations in BTH and how the computer and gas valve operate.
I contacted HTP and discussed the situation and the HVAC contractors concerns; and they stated that they have never tested their systems on lease gas and could not recommend any of their boilers for lease gas usage. From their responses I am not sure if it is a problem with it operating or their hesitance because they haven’t tested it and don’t want to recommend it due to liability.
Has anyone tried operated a modulating boiler on lease gas?
Are there any concerns or issues?
Thanks again for any comments or recommendations
Dave
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Replies
I’m assuming by “lease gas” you mean gas that you get off of well on your property, so the gas is untreated? I have one customer that gets the gas that comes off of an oil well on their property. They have some minimal treating/drying equipment and then they inject the gas into their natural gas system so that it’s mixed in with the commerical gas supply to their campus. In this way, the gas from their well saves them money, but the commerical gas helps to minimize the effects of the variability of the raw gas from their well.
Aside from that, I’m not aware of any specific boilers for this. I do have some experience with combined cycle plants that do this and the big issue is the chemical makeup of the gas, the BTU content is a lesser concern. Some of the other compounds in the raw gas are corrosive.
Bill
Bill,
Thanks for the reply. It is interesting that the larger issue is the gas composition and corrosiveness, I would think the Stainless Steel used to combat condensation would also combat gas corrosiveness.
I was a little surprised that with all of the users for well gas in the North East there weren't more responses but that could be because of the liability issues involved.
As a secondary question, do you know if anyone produces a non-modulating sealed combustion boiler (direct vent) that is capable of using well gas?
Thanks again for your time and information.