Combustion optimization in gas burners of reverberatory furnaces during the melting of nickel alloys

Abstract

In recent years, due to climate change environmental sustainability programs have been created that require the search for alternatives to reduce air emissions and reduce fuel consumption. The combustion industry is looking for an effective solution to increase the life cycle of its equipment and improve combustion efficiency without neglecting safety or savings. The efficiency of the medium pressure natural gas burners associated with chemical energy, which is converted into heat, that is, the hotter the gaseous products of combustion, the more efficient the burner. The work analyzes the combustion process and their chemical reactions; combustion products obtained in accordance with various conditions; combustion characteristics and factors that influence; and measurement methods needed to optimize combustion and their equipment. In the metallurgical production of nickel, optimization of the burners is very important due to the high temperature used in the reverberatory furnace. That is, the use of a large excess of air would be unfavorably energetic, and the use of a very low excess would result in small intimate mixtures of air and fuel, followed by the release of unreacted reagents and the formation of toxic gases arising at high temperatures. For this reason, the results of this work are an important source of information. The innovation is to automate the use of non-invasive sensors to control the combustion process. The sensors play a fundamental role in the industry, because the information they provide supports the enhanced use of data in the enterprise, increase productivity, efficiency and safety.