A Study of Specific Energy Consumption in Reheating Furnace Using Regenerative Burners Combined with Recuperator

Abstract

The steel industry is one of high energy consumption industries. In order to mill steel bar into steel rod,the steel bar is heated to 1,100 - 1,250 °C. The objective of this work is to investigate energy utilization inreheating furnace using regenerative burners combined with recuperator. The furnace capacity is 30 tonneper hour, pusher type and the natural gas is used as fuel. Billet sizes 120 x 120 x 4000 mm are used forreheating. Waste heat recovery in recuperator system can preheat combustion air to 300 °C due to materialtemperature limitations. In order that preheating combustion air temperature near furnace temperature soregenerative burner system provides for substituting that it can preheat combustion air up to 1000 °C. Theresults from measurements and energy balance analysis indicate that the regenerative burners combinedwith recuperator system consume energy approximately 43% less than the case study of conventionalrecuperative system. Key Words: Energy consumption; Reheating furnace; Regenerative burners; Recuperator; Energy balance