Coke oven battery

In a coke oven battery of the type heated optionally by lean gas or rich gas and which includes a twin heating flues disposed in a row between the coke oven chambers, the twin heating flues being defined by continuous and discontinuous crosswalls in an alternating arrangement, each heating flue having inlets at its base for rich and lean gas, and cross-regenerators below the coke oven chambers, each of said cross-regenerators being operated over its entire length in the same flow line during a single heating half-cycle and in reverse during the other half-cycle, said twin heating flues being defined by crosswalls incorporating passageways therein that define header flues in each of the crosswalls for preheated air and alternatively as exit ports at intervals of graduated elevations, the improvement comprising:

• means defining a first series of ducts extending in a gaseous conducting manner between a first one of said regenerators and every other header flue in each of two adjacent rows of said twin heating flues for conducting preheated air during a heating half-cycle, said means further defining a second series of ducts extending in a gaseous conducting manner between of second of said regenerators and exit ports in the bottom of the heating flues forming said two adjacent rows thereof for conducting preheated lean gas when heating a coke oven chamber thereby and for conducting preheated air when heating a coke oven chamber with rich gas, said first and second series of ducts being arranged alternatively from row-to-row of heating flues in a manner to alternate the sequence of upgoing and downgoing sections of twin flues between rows thereof.