Industrial experience of heat supply by catalytic installations

Abstract

A new technology of fuel combustion, offered by the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis in industrial scale, allows avoiding many disadvantages of the high-temperature fuel combustion. The technology is based on a combination of four principles: use of heterogeneous catalysts for complete oxidation of combustibles; combustion of fuels in a fluidized bed of catalyst particles; combustion of fuels without a significant excess of air; overlapping the processes of heat release and removal within the same fluidized bed. Based on the new technology, a variety of apparatuses for heating and evaporation of liquids, for drying and heating of materials, for detoxification of industrial emissions (gaseous, liquid, and solid), and for a number of other processes have been designed. Pilot catalytic heat supply units (CHSUs) are being used since the early 1980s to heat the auxiliary and constructed buildings. Since 1993, 30 industrial CHSUs operate successfully and reliably at different facilities in Novosibirsk, Russia, and all working parameters correspond to the design values. Automatic feedback between the temperature of circulating water and fuel feed allows minimizing the fuel consumption with regard to the heat yield and temperature of the outside air. The content of toxic substances in the CHSU flue gases does not exceed sanitary norms. An important advantage of catalytic combustion in the fluidized catalyst bed is the possibility to burn efficiently the solid fuels (coal, peat) as well.