Selective adjustment of heat flux for increased uniformity of heating a charge material in a tilt rotary furnace
AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorsJin Cao, Xiaoyi He, Aleksandar Georgi Slavejkov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of heating a charge material by controlling heat flux in a tilt rotary furnace is disclosed. Combustion by the burner forms a heat release profile including a high heat flux region. The positioning of the high heat flux region is controllable by providing a controlled amount of secondary or staged oxidant. The burner is configured and controlled to position a region of high heat flux at a position corresponding to an area requiring greater heating, such as the area of maximum charge depth in the furnace to provide substantially uniform melting and heat distribution.
Claims14
A method of heating a charge material in a furnace in which the charge material has a depth profile including a location of greatest charge depth, the method comprising:
- injecting a first fuel and a first oxidant into the furnace through a first injector of a burner;
- injecting one of a second fuel and a second oxidant into the furnace through a second injector of the burner in a staging ratio, wherein the staging ratio is a percentage of fuel or oxidant injected via the burner through the second injector;
- determining the location of greatest depth of the charge material;
- adjusting the staging ratio to form a region of high heat flux at a controlled distance from the burner corresponding to the location of greatest charge depth;
- and
- repeating the determining and adjusting steps as necessary to maintain a correspondence between the controlled distance of the region of high heat flux and the location of greatest charge depth.
A method of heating a charge material in a tilt rotary furnace in which the charge material has a surface and a depth profile, the method comprising:
- injecting a first fuel and first oxidant into the furnace through a first injector of a burner;
- injecting one of a second fuel and a second oxidant into the furnace through a second injector of the burner in a staging ratio, wherein the staging ratio is a percentage of fuel or oxidant injected via the burner through the second injector;
- determining a location of greatest charge depth in the depth profile;
- and
- adjusting the staging ratio to form a region of high heat flux at a controlled distance from the burner to correspond to the location of greatest charge depth, the controlled distance resulting in the region of high heat flux being proximal to one or more of:
- a portion of the surface of the charge material corresponding to the location of greatest depth of the charge material;
- and
- a wall portion of the rotary furnace corresponding to the location of greatest depth of the charge material;
- and
- repeating the determining and adjusting steps as necessary to maintain a correspondence between the controlled distance of the region of high heat flux and the location of greatest charge depth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.