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One of the biggest concerns to the asphalt industry today is rising fuel costs. Coal is currently one of the least expensive fuels available. Astec Inc. has developed a coal burner, the new Phoenix Coal, to help hot mix asphalt facilities take advantage of the lower cost of coal. Astec believes that under good operating procedures a coal burner offers a definite competitive advantage.

The efficient, low maintenance Phoenix Coal provides substantial fuel cost savings by burning pulverized coal with oil or gas as a support fuel. The Phoenix Coal requires no refractory, performs at the same production rates as gas or oil units and is highly responsive to load changes.

Astec recently completed installation of the Phoenix Coal at United Co. in Grand Junction, CO. (See the article, "United installs coal-fired burner," on page 46.)

Another new Astec burner, the Phoenix Phantom, is meeting the lowest emission requirements. While tests are still being conducted, the predicted emissions performance of nitrogen oxides (NOx) is at 18 ppm (at 3-percent oxygen) and of carbon monoxide (CO) is at 200 ppm (at 3-percent oxygen). In all other areas the performance is essentially identical to that of the standard gas burning Phoenix.

Astec's Phoenix burner was the first to bring premix gas to the market in a way that made it very usable. The Astec Phoenix Phantom takes the innovation further with a new mixing method. Instead of using gas injection tubes to put gas into the combustion air stream, the Phoenix Phantom injects gas into 3-inch-diameter turbulent mixing tubes as air passes through the tubes. This provides superb mixing that is the key to achieving ultra-low nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions without flue gas recirculation.