Apparatus for wet process dehydration of air to be supplied to blast furnace

An apparatus for continuous dehydration of atmospheric air to be supplied by a blower to a blast furnace comprising a dehydration assembly provided with at least one dehydration means for contacting a stream of intake atmospheric air with regenerative hygroscopic liquid so as to reduce the moisture content of the air, a regeneration assembly provided with at least one regeneration means for contacting at least a part of the hygroscopic liquid which has been used in the dehydration assembly with another stream of intake atmospheric air under heating by a fluid heating medium so as to regenerate said part of the hygroscopic liquid, piping means for circulating through the or each said dehydration means the so regenerated hygroscopic liquid together with any remainder of the hygroscopic liquid which has been used in the dehydration assembly, and a duct for passing the dehydrated air coming from the dehydration assembly to the input side of said blower, characterized in that

• (a) a cylinder is provided through which at least a part of the hygroscopic liquid flowing through said piping means is caused to flow so as to provide a liquid head of a predetermined height;
• (b) means for continuously detecting the concentration of the hygroscopic liquid flowing through said cylinder is provided;
• (c) said regeneration assembly is of such a size that it can handle the maximum regeneration load expected throughout the year, and is divided into a plurality of regeneration units, each regeneration unit being provided with the regeneration means for its own, means for controlling the flow rate of the fluid heating medium introduced into said regeneration means in accordance with a signal from said means for detecting the concentration of the hygroscopic liquid, and means for controlling the flow rate of the hygroscopic liquid introduced into said regeneration means directly or indirectly in accordance with a signal from said means for detecting the concentration of the hygroscopic liquid, whereby each unit is controllably operable independently of other units;
• and
• (d) each regeneration unit is further provided with at least one heat exchanger for transferring sensible heat of at least one fluid, of the regenerated hygroscopic liquid, fluid heating medium and air, leaving the regeneration means of said unit to at least one fluid, of the hygroscopic liquid to be regenerated and intake atmospheric air, introduced into said unit.