Eco-Burner are a Waterford based company who design, manufacture and supply eco-friendly buffet equipment to hotels and banqueting facilities around the world.

Eco-Burner has developed unique LPG-powered culinary stove technology.  The combustion technology used in the product is a flameless catalytic radiant burner. The stove is designed as a direct replacement for culinary gels and wicks used for food warming applications around the world. The benefit to end users is improved safety, waste reduction, and in many cases cost reduction.

Eco-Burner contacted CREST after observing early mortality catalytic burner failures on stoves deployed in the field.

The ECO-Burner and CREST team secured an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher to fund research in order to solve the issue. The main goal of the project was to improve the quality of the high-temperature LPG burners by studying the life-limiting metallurgical failure mechanisms.

CREST experts combined field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis to visualise prepared cross-sections of Eco-Burner products. Further study  resulted in a better understanding of the mechanisms of failure observed.

The two steps study gave ECO-Burner greater insight into the underlying micromechanisms of burner failure and helped uncover an unauthorised material change by a supplier which was found to influence burner durability.

Testimonial

“The benefit of the assignment to Eco-Burner included a better understanding of the various micromechanisms of oxidative failure in surface combustion applications allowing a better design of the burners.”

The ability to engage directly with CREST team members as engineering peers, pool knowledge in a confidential environment, and work transparently and collaboratively was valuable.”

Tony Owens, Chief Technology Officer at Eco-Burner