Heat recovery apparatus and methods of use

A method of recovering useful heat in a furnace fired primarily from one end, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) creating a main flow of hot flue gas by combusting fuel and oxidant in a plurality of primary oxidant-fuel burners positioned at one end of the furnace, the primary burner supplying the main part of the energy to a load and in one or more additional conventional oxidant-fuel burners positioned generally opposite of the primary burner, for better heat transfer to the load in the furnace, and combining said main flow of hot flue gas with other combustion products and process gases to form a hot flue gas;
• b) flowing the hot flue gas through a flue chimney at a first temperature;
• c) flowing an initial intermediate fluid having an initial intermediate fluid temperature, through a primary means for transferring heat to preheat the initial intermediate fluid thus creating a hot intermediate fluid;
• d) splitting the hot intermediate fluid into a plurality of streams equal to the number of primary burners;
• e) flowing each of the hot intermediate fluid streams to an oxidant preheater associated with each primary burner, thus producing a first cooled intermediate fluid and preheated oxidant for each burner,
• f) flowing each of the cooled intermediate fluid streams to a respective fuel preheater associated with each primary burner, thus producing a second cooled intermediate fluid and heated fuel, the second cooled intermediate fluid having a temperature lower than the first cooled intermediate fluid;
• and
• g) flowing the heated oxidant and heated fuel streams to each of the respectable primary oxidant-fuel burners to create the main part of the hot flue gas leaving the furnace, the conventional burners also contributing to the hot flue gas.