Regenerative combustion
The regenerative firing , even regenerative heating called, was in 1864 as an energy-saving version of the steelmaking introduced. Regenerare is a Latin verb meaning "refresh, recover, revitalize". In the combination of words with firing, it refers to heat-retaining technical systems and leads to metallurgy in terms of the history of technology .
The technical principle of the regenerator
The task of a regenerator is to act as a heat store for hot exhaust gases from a furnace in the technical-thermal area . This is done in that one of two refractory lined ducts is heated up by hot exhaust gases until a switch is made to the second duct when a predetermined temperature is reached. The heated duct now heats the fresh air supplied, which, when heated, has energetic advantages when heating the furnace. At the same time, the other channel is heated again by the exhaust gases until it switches over again.
The application of the regenerative process
Since the introduction of the refining technique, which promotes the blast furnace process of steel production using Bessemer and Thomas pears - this includes the combustion of unwanted carbon through the supply of oxygen - the heat-storing Siemens-Martin furnace process has been in place, which enables temperatures of more than 1600 ° C, as well as the combustion of the carbon, also less than a blast furnace plant was tied to a specific location than the state of the art. The production of steel from pig iron could thus take place anywhere, for example as a supplier to a neighboring steel processor. It was not until the 20th century that this process, which was only possible in discontinuous operation, became obsolete thanks to new “freshening” techniques, in particular using the oxygen that was bound in steel and iron scrap and which increased the temperature during combustion.
In the 21st century, however, the regenerative process is advantageous for all types of large combustion systems, especially power plants operated with non-renewable energies, because it enables the efficiency of the energy sources used to be increased.
The technical principle of the recuperator
The recuperator is more than just a heat store, it is a heat exchanger designed to increase the temperature of an already hot gas by another hot gas supplied to it.
The application of recuperation
Recuperation is based on heat transfer , using the combustion gases, with which the air supply of an oil or gas burner for metallurgical furnaces is heated up to such an extent that fuel savings of 20 to 40% can be achieved with the required continuity of the process. The reason for this is that the heat exchanger is heated to 600 ° C by the combustion exhaust air from around 1000 ° C. Recuperation, brought about by a fully automatic recuperative burner operated with oil or gas, is considered the standard of furnace technology in metal foundries with crucible furnaces .
literature
- Foundry lexicon. Schiele & Schön, Berlin, 17. Edition, ISBN 3-7949-0606-3
- H. Ost, Textbook of Chemical Technology. 4th edition 1900, Verlag Gebr. Jänecke Hannover