Combustion control · independent NFPA-aligned BMS · flame supervision · open architecture
Custom boiler control systems and independent, NFPA-aligned burner management systems for package boilers, fired and unfired heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), and utility boilers. Our solutions integrate flame supervision, purge and light-off sequencing, drum level control, and combustion management to improve safety, reliability, and operational performance.
Control
Maintaining stable steam production requires precise coordination of fuel, combustion air, feedwater, and drum level across changing operating conditions. As demand changes, the boiler control system must continuously balance these interacting processes while maintaining safe operation during startup, load changes, and shutdown.
Innova Technologies designs custom boiler control systems for fired and unfired heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), package boilers, and utility boilers. Each system is engineered for the unit’s firing method, heat transfer characteristics, and feedwater configuration, integrating combustion control, drum level control, steam pressure and temperature control, and burner management into a coordinated control strategy. Developed using IEC 61131-3 standards, our open architecture solutions provide full logic access and long-term maintainability without proprietary software restrictions.
The Problem
Boiler and combustion systems operate with significant stored energy, making reliable burner management essential for safe operation. Flame supervision, furnace purging, burner light-off sequencing, and emergency shutdown functions must operate reliably under all operating conditions to help protect personnel, equipment, and the facility.
Many older boiler control systems combine combustion control and burner management on a single aging platform that is increasingly difficult to maintain and support. As control hardware reaches the end of its service life, modernizing both the process control system and the burner management system improves reliability, maintainability, and long-term support.
Innova Technologies designs independent, NFPA-aligned Burner Management Systems (BMS) that integrate with the Boiler Control System while maintaining clear separation between safety and process control functions. Each system is engineered to meet the project’s safety requirements and operating philosophy, providing modern hardware, documented control logic, open architecture, and long-term maintainability.
Capabilities
We supply a Burner Management System engineered independently of the modulating controls and aligned to NFPA guidance for fuel-fired equipment. The BMS enforces permissives, supervises flame, executes safe shutdown on any unsafe condition, and is implemented on a safety-rated platform whose safety integrity level is set by the customer's HAZOP. Exact SIL targets are project-specific.
Coordinated fuel and air control holds the air-fuel ratio through load changes with cross-limiting so air leads on increasing load and fuel leads on decreasing load, protecting against fuel-rich excursions. Furnace-draft and, where applicable, oxygen-trim control are integrated to maintain efficient, stable combustion across the operating range.
Each burner's flame is supervised by dedicated flame scanners with discrimination logic to confirm the correct flame is present and to detect loss of flame. Loss-of-flame conditions trip fuel to that burner or the unit per the safety design, and scanner health and flame-signal strength are continuously monitored and trended.
For fired and unfired HRSGs we manage duct-burner firing where present, feedwater and drum level across pressure levels, and steam-temperature control via attemperation. Startup and load-following sequences are coordinated with the gas turbine or heat source, with hold points and full alarm and diagnostic messaging.
Before any light-off, the BMS enforces a timed furnace purge at proven airflow to clear combustibles, then steps through igniter proving, main-fuel valve permissives, and flame confirmation in the NFPA-aligned sequence. Every permissive, timer, and interlock is testable, and the full sequence is exercised and documented during Factory Acceptance Testing.
Real-time diagnostics track flame quality, valve and damper position, combustion performance, and BMS trip first-out, exposing alarms, sequence-of-events, and trends to plant historians and asset-management systems. First-out annunciation makes the cause of any trip immediately clear to operators for fast, safe recovery.
We implement single-, two-, and three-element drum level control with shrink-and-swell compensation, feedwater-valve and pump coordination, and independent high/low drum-level trips. The strategy is tuned to the unit's drum geometry and load-change rates to keep level stable through swings while protecting against carryover and low-water conditions.
Why Innova Technologies
We deliver the Burner Management System independent of the modulating controls, aligned to NFPA guidance, on a safety-rated platform whose safety integrity level is set by the customer’s HAZOP, so a control fault is designed not to defeat the safety function.
Safe boiler operation depends on reliable burner management that operates independently of the combustion control system. Innova Technologies designs NFPA-aligned Burner Management Systems (BMS) that supervise flame detection, furnace purging, burner light-off sequencing, permissives, and protective shutdowns while integrating seamlessly with the Boiler Control System.
Each BMS is engineered for the specific boiler, burner configuration, and operating requirements, providing clear separation between safety and process control, documented logic, and long-term maintainability on modern safety-rated hardware.
Every boiler control and burner management system undergoes comprehensive Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) before shipment. Using a full system simulation, we verify purge and light-off sequencing, flame supervision, drum level control, combustion control, alarms, interlocks, and protective shutdown functions by simulating and monitoring every system input and output.
This testing allows operators and maintenance personnel to validate system operation before installation, reducing startup time and minimizing commissioning risk.
Boiler control systems often remain in service long after the original control hardware has reached the end of its lifecycle. Innova Technologies provides OEM-independent engineering services for boiler and burner control retrofits, preserving proven combustion equipment while replacing obsolete control platforms with modern, open-architecture systems.
Our solutions integrate with a wide range of boilers, burners, and plant control systems, allowing facilities to modernize existing assets without being limited to a single equipment supplier.
Our boiler control and burner management systems are built on commercially available PLC, DCS, and safety-rated platforms using IEC 61131-3 programming standards. Operators and maintenance personnel have full access to control logic, tuning parameters, alarms, and diagnostics without proprietary software restrictions or long-term service agreements.
As hardware and plant requirements evolve, your facility retains the flexibility to upgrade, expand, and maintain the control system without replacing the entire platform.
Technical Resources
FAQ
NFPA best practice and safety-lifecycle principles both call for separating the safety function from modulating control. Keeping the Burner Management System independent, on its own safety-rated logic and final elements, ensures a fault in the control system cannot defeat flame supervision, purge enforcement, or safe shutdown. We design both, kept properly independent.
The safety integrity level is set by the customer’s HAZOP and safety-requirements specification, not chosen by us in isolation. We implement the BMS on a safety-rated platform sized to meet the assigned SIL, then verify it through SIL calculations and document the results during design review and FAT.
On loss of flame, the BMS trips fuel to the affected burner or the unit per the safety design. On loss of control-system power, outputs go to fail-safe states; fuel valves fail closed, driving a controlled safe shutdown rather than an unsafe condition. Redundancy and UPS provisions are specified during engineering based on unit criticality.
Safety kept separate from control, so a single fault cannot compromise both.
We supply a Burner Management System engineered independently of the modulating Boiler Control System and aligned to NFPA guidance for fuel-fired equipment. The BMS supervises flame with dedicated scanners, enforces a timed furnace purge and the full light-off permissive sequence, and executes safe shutdown on any unsafe condition. It runs on a safety-rated platform whose safety integrity level is set by the customer’s HAZOP, so a control-system fault is designed not to defeat flame supervision, purge enforcement, or the trip function.
From obsolete combined platforms to a modern Boiler Control System with a truly independent NFPA-aligned BMS, we engineer the right solution for your unit and your timeline.
Independent control for every turbine class.
Anti-surge, loadshare, performance, and capacity control.
Featured
Don’t see your industry?
If your equipment runs and your downtime costs more than the controls do, let’s talk
Single-source
A MESSAGE FROM JOHN KAZOUR, CEO
To our customers and partners,
For more than 50 years, our team has helped customers keep critical operations running. We built our reputation as Petrotech by taking responsibility for control systems on important rotating machinery.
As more industries came to us with similar challenges across power generation, compression, and hydro applications, our engineering team kept finding ways to solve them. Eventually, the business outgrew the Petrotech name.
We are entering our next chapter as Innova Technologies. The new name reflects the full scope of our work as a rotating machinery control systems specialist. We engineer controls around the machine, deliver complete projects from design through commissioning, and provide support that stays with the problem until it is solved.
Our name is changing, but the people, engineering experience, and commitment behind the work continue. Our responsibility to active projects and installed systems carries forward under the Innova Technologies name. Your current contacts remain the right place to start, and we will communicate directly if an administrative record requires an update.
We appreciate the trust you have placed in us over the decades, and we look forward to continuing that work as Innova Technologies.
CEO, Innova Technologies
