FURNACES

A furnace is a fairly gas-tight and well-insulated space in which gas, oil, pulverized coal, of the combustible gases from solid-fuel beds may be burned with a minimum amount of excess air and with reasonably complete combustion. Near the exit from the furnace at which place most of the. fuel has been burned, the furnace gases will consist of inert gases such as CO2, N2 and H2O vapor, together with some O2 and some combustible gases such as CO; H2 hydrocarbons, and particles of free carbon (soot). If combustion is to be complete, the combustible gases must be brought into intimate contact with the residual oxygen in a furnace atmosphere composed principally of inert gases. Also, the oxygen must be kept to a minimum if the loss due to heating the excess air from room temperature to chimney-gas temperature is to be low. Consequently, the major function of the furnace is to provide space in which the fuel may be burned with a minimum amount of excess air and with a minimum loss due to the escape of unburned fuel.

The design of a satisfactory furnace is based upon the "three T's of combustion": temperature, turbulence, and time. For each particular fossil fuel, there is a minimum temperature, known as the ignition temperature, below which the combustion of that fuel in the correct amount of air will not take place.

The ignition temperature of a fuel in air as reported by various investigators depends somewhat upon the methods used to determine it and, for some common gases, is as follows:

If the combustible gases are cooled below the ignition temperature, they will not burn, regardless of the amount of oxygen present. A furnace must therefore be large enough and be maintained at a high enough temperature to permit the combustible gases to burn before they are cooled below the ignition temperature. In other words, the relatively cool heat-transfer surfaces must be so located that they do not cool the furnace gases below the ignition temperature until after combustion is reasonably complete[3].

Turbulence is essential if combustion is to be complete in a furnace of economical size[4]. Violent mixing of oxygen with the combustible gases in a furnace increases the rate of combustion, shortens the flame, reduces the required furnace volume, and decreases the chance that combustible gases will escape from the furnace without coming into contact with the oxygen necessary for their combustion. The amount of excess oxygen or air required for combustion is decreased by effective mixing. Turbulence is obtained, in the case of oil, gas, and powdered coal, by using burners which intro­duce the fuel-air mixture into the furnace with a violent whirling action. High-velocity steam or air jets and mixing arches may be used to increase the turbulence in furnaces fired with coal on stokers.

Since combustion is hot instantaneous, time must be provided for the oxygen to find and react with the combustible gases in the furnace. In burning fuels such as gas, oil, or pulverized coal, the incoming fuel-air mixture must be heated above the ignition temperature by radiation from the flame or hot walls of the furnace. Since gaseous fuels are composed of molecules, they burn very rapidly when thoroughly mixed with oxygen at a temperature above the ignition temperature. However, the individual particles of pulverized coal or atomized oil are very large in comparison with the size of molecules, and many molecules of oxygen are necessary to burn one particle of coal or droplet of oil. Time is required for the oxygen molecules to diffuse through the blanket of inert products of combustion which surround a partially burned particle of fuel and to react with the un-burned fuel. Consequently, oil and pulverized coal burn with a longer flame than gaseous fuels.

The required furnace volume is dependent, therefore, upon the kind of fuel burned, the method of burning the fuel, the quantity of excess air in the furnace, and the effectiveness of furnace turbulence. The shape of the furnace depends upon the kind of fuel burned, the equipment employed to burn the fuel, and the type of boiler used to absorb the energy if the fuel is burned for steam generation.

Industrial furnaces in which the objective is to create and maintain a region at a high temperature and the furnaces of small steam boilers are constructed of fire brick, a brick that has been developed to withstand high temperatures without softening, to resist the erosive effects of furnace atmospheres and particles of ash, and to resist spalling when subjected to fluctuating temperatures. Low vertical walls may be constructed of fire brick in the conventional manner. High walls which are subject to considerable expansion, may be tied to and sectionally supported by an external steel frame.

When a boiler furnace is operated at high capacity, the temperature may be high enough to melt or fuse the ash which is carried in suspension by the furnace gases. Molten ash will chemically attack and erode the fire brick with which it comes into contact. Also, if the ash particles are not cooled below the temperature at which they are plastic or sticky before they are carried into the convection tube banks of the boiler, they will adhere to these surfaces, obstruct the gas passages, and force a shutdown of the unit[5]. Moreover, the function of a boiler is to generate steam, and the most effective heat-transfer surface is that which can "see" the high-temperature flame and absorb radiant energy. The rate of heat absorption expressed in Btu per hour per square foot of projected wall area may be from 1000 to 10,000 times as great as the heat-transfer rate in the boiler surface with which the products of combustion are in contact last before being discharged up the chimney. Consequently, the walls of furnaces for large steam boilers are constructed of boiler tubes.

CYCLONE FURNACE (CRUSHED COAL)