Energy-efficient furnace heating - Regenerative heat recovery with flat flame burners

The use of thermal regenerators in industrial furnaces produces major savings in fuel costs and allows high value fuels such as natural gas to be substituted by process and bio gas. Furthermore, flat flame burners are often used to achieve a required heating quality. A new type of heating system consisting of tubular regenerators and flat flame burners has therefore been developed for this purpose. The system was initially studied on an experimental basis using numerical simulation and then tested in operating conditions with great success. With both natural gas and with process gases from steelworks, fuel savings of 20 to 30 % were documented compared to systems which are commonly in use today. In addition, the entire system features low flow resistance while the pressure loss at high-fire rate is only approx. 20 mbar.