Laboratory-scale Furnace Research Articles

High-temperature corrosion of water-wall tubes in oxy-combustion atmosphere

Oxy-combustion is one of the most promising technology for CO2 capture in coal-fired power plants. However, under oxy-combustion conditions, the concentrations of acid gas species are significantly increased due to the introduction of the flue gas recycle, which aggravates the high-temperature corrosion of heat exchanger materials in boilers. In this study, the early-stage high-temperature corrosion (0–16 h) of two representative water-wall tube materials (20G, 12Cr1MoV) is experimentally tested in a lab-scale furnace with the simulated oxy-combustion atmosphere. The effects of material, temperature, CO2, H2O, SO2, H2S and CO atmospheres on high-temperature corrosion behaviors is investigated. The micro-morphologies and compositions of corrosion layers are characterized by scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectra (SEM-EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Kinetic analysis shows that the high concentration of CO2 accelerates high-temperature corrosion of water wall materials. In the simulated oxy-fuel combustion atmosphere (CO2/O2/SO2), the mass gain rate can be enhanced by 10%–30% compared to the conventional air combustion atmosphere (N2/O2/SO2), and the major composition of oxide scale is magnetite. In a reducing oxy-fuel atmosphere (CO2/CO/SO2/H2S), the major components of oxide scale are magnetite and ferrous sulfide. The high concentration of moisture in the atmosphere accelerated the corrosion rate by 10–30%. For both model alloys, the corrosion kinetics obey the parabolic law. Water-wall tube material 12Cr1MoV appears superiority in corrosion resistance compared with 20G material.

Temperature measurements in a laboratory scale furnace for manufacturing of silicon carbide through Acheson process

A hot model for SiC production has been developed on the laboratory-scale to measure temperatures in harsh conditions at various locations of the furnace. A unique method has been adopted to measure the core temperature in reactive and high temperature environment. The temperatures of the core and at various radial and angular locations within the furnace were measured using a ratio pyrometer and by B and C-type thermocouples respectively; this type of controlled measurement is missing in this field. In this study, the power supply was maintained such that a constant core temperature was sustained. The temperature decrease along the radial direction is an indicative of the SiC production. Further, at the same radial distances, variations in the local temperature depended on the angular positions; upper regions showed higher temperatures due to escaping hot gases. The results obtained in this study are expected to be beneficial to the industries.

Grain Reconstruction of Palladium and Palladium-Nickel Alloys for Platinum Catchment

Platinum-rhodium gauzes are frequently used to catalyse the high temperature ammonia oxidation step for production of synthetic nitrogen-based fertilisers. The gauzes suffer from Pt loss in the form of platinum dioxide (PtO2), due to the highly exothermic nature of the oxidation reaction. Industrially this is mitigated by installing one or more palladium-nickel catchment gauzes directly downstream of the combustion gauzes, to capture the lost Pt. The Pd-Ni catchment gauzes undergo severe structural modification during operation. In this study, we undertake a systematic study in a laboratory-scale furnace system to determine the role of each of the constituent gases O2, H2O and PtO2 on the structural changes of the Pd-Ni gauzes. In addition, some samples are exposed to real industrial conditions in an ammonia combustion pilot plant reactor. Fresh and spent catchment gauzes are analysed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy/optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-MS/OES). By combining analysis of samples from furnace and pilot scale experiments, the main findings are that Pd-Ni gauzes undergo internal oxidation to nickel(II) oxide (NiO); which in the presence of steam results in Ni depletion and that PtO2 vapour causes severe grain reconstruction. Furthermore, in laboratory-scale experiments no significant Pd loss is observed, which is in contrast to observations from the pilot plant where the samples are exposed to real post-ammonia oxidation conditions. Pd loss is likely attributed to some gas species contained in the real post-ammonia oxidation gas stream.

Effects of Preheating and CO2 Dilution on Oxy-MILD Combustion of Natural Gas

Oxy-moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion, which is a novel combination of oxy-fuel technology and MILD regime, is numerically studied in the present work. The effects of external preheating and CO2 dilution level on the combustion field, emission, and CO formation mechanisms are investigated in a recuperative laboratory-scale furnace with a recirculating cross-flow. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations with eddy dissipation concept (EDC) model are employed to perform a 3-D simulation of the combustion field and the turbulence–chemistry interactions. In addition, a well-stirred reactor (WSR) analysis is conducted to further examine the chemical kinetics of this combination when varying the target parameters. The simulations used the skeletal USC-Mech II, which has been shown to perform well in the oxy-fuel combustion modeling. Results show that with more preheating, the uniformity of temperature distribution is noticeably enhanced at the cost of higher CO emission. Also as inlet temperature increases, the concentration of minor species rises and CO formation through the main path (CH4→CH3→CH2O→HCO→CO→CO2) is strengthened, while heavier hydrocarbons path (C2H2→CO) is suppressed. Meanwhile, greater CO2 addition notably closes the gap between maximum and exhaust temperatures. In a highly CO2-diluted mixture, chain-branching reactions releasing CH2O are strengthened, while chain-terminating reactions are weakened. CH2O production through CH3O is accelerated compared with the straight conversion of methyl to formaldehyde. When diluting the oxidant, methylene CH2(s) plays a more influential role in CO formation than when pure oxygen is used, contributing to higher CO emission.

Assessing the suitability of recovering shrub biowaste involved in wildland fires in the South of Europe through torrefaction mobile units

Several types of shrubs and oak inducing high wildland fire risk in the South of Europe were evaluated for their potential valorization through torrefaction. Biomasses were firstly characterized in terms of macromolecular and elemental composition. Lab-scale TGA-GC/MS torrefaction experiments allowed the in-depth study of the solid mass transformation and the production profile of 23 volatile species (200 to 300 °C at 3 °C·min−1 and 300 °C for 30 min). The proportion of the torrefied products (solid, CO, CO2, water and volatile species) was evaluated through mass balance in a lab-scale furnace under typical torrefaction conditions (300 °C, 40 min). The results show a similar characterization and behavior in torrefaction for oak and shrublands, and slightly different characteristics for fern. However, fern may grow separately from shrublands and is considered to present a low fire risk. This suggests that the in-situ direct valorization of these biomasses through torrefaction mobile units seems promising. However, other properties, such as density, flowability and grindability need to be studied to confirm the feasibility of the process. Regarding torrefaction products, a higher carbon content and an interesting increase in heating value were measured for the torrefied solid, which makes it suitable for energetic valorization, among other uses. The composition of permanent gases was evaluated and found in agreement with previous studies. Finally, the volatile species released were studied in function of the torrefaction temperature, in view of their possible valorization as green chemicals.

Determining the heating characteristics of non-spherical particles in combusting flows

In order to perform efficient numerical calculations of the heating characteristics of inert, non-spherical particles, an Euler – Lagrangian approach was used for this work. The continuous phase was the combusting flow field in a lab-scale furnace. The Steady Laminar Flamelet (SLF) and the Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) combustion model were used for simulations of the continuous phase and the corresponding results were evaluated. It was concluded that the FGM combustion model offers superior performance and moderate computational effort in combustion modelling of air and natural gas. The second phase consisted of discrete coal slag particles which were injected into the furnace. The heating characteristics of spherical and non-spherical particles were evaluated and a model for calculating the temperature of non-spherical particles was validated. The application of the FGM in combination with the Euler-Lagrange approach and specially developed multiphase model adaptions led to very precise results. The maximum deviation between experimentally and numerically determined mean temperatures of non-spherical particles was only 6 K at a temperature level of 680 K.

An Analysis of Heat Distribution in the Production of SiC Process

Abstract SiC has been produced by the Acheson process in bulk. The efficiency of the process is quite low. Only about 15 to 18% of the total charge gets converted into SiC as against the theoretical value of about 42%. A heat transfer analysis of the process shows that it can be improved further to increase its efficiency. It has been done based on laboratory scale hot model unit and industrial furnace in terms of energy balance. This has been presented in this article. Based on the analysis, it is found that most of the losses in an industrial furnace occur due to the heating of charge by supplying excess electric energy than required and radiation. The latter has been improved at the laboratory scale furnace by enclosing the most part of the furnace.

Influence of over fire air system on NOx emissions: An experimental case study

In this work, various combinations of the NO emission influencing factors and their x combined effects in air staging combustion on level of furnace, using over fire air, were investigated in an experimental lab-scale furnace. At this, process temperature were varied in the range from 950?C to 1450?C, excess air ratio in primary zone in the range ? = 0.9 - 1.2, while distance of over fire air nozzles from the burner outlet varied until a 1 given distance of 2/5 of total length of furnace. Basic fuel is brown coal from Middle Bosnia coal basin, mixed in two coal blends and one coal-woody biomass blend, to combine an effect of fuel characteristics variation on NO emission. Results shows that x an average reduction of NO emission over tested temperature range, when using over x fire air against conventional air supply with over fire air switched off, is 26.5%. At this, much more NO emission reduction for two coal blends were occurred at higher x temperatures ? at 1350?C and above, where an average NO emission reduction is x 32.5%. Furthermore, it was found that the NO emission decreased with an increase in x distance of over fire air nozzles from the outlet level of burner until a distance of 1/3 of total furnace length; with further increase of the distance, NOx emission is stabilised and no further effect to NOx emission reduction was observed, while CO emission and unburnt increased.

Development of Low-Cost Titanium-Manganese Shape Memory Alloys

Ti alloys are attractive materials for such applications, they are expensive due to the costly alloying elements such as Nb or Mo. The present authors have adopted Mn as a low-cost alloying element, and melted Ti-7, 7.5 and 8 mass%Mn-1.5 and 3mass%Al alloys using a laboratory-scale arc furnace. All specimens prepared from bottom ingots were heat treated at 1223 K for 3.6 ks and quenched in ice water. In the 7 and 7.5Mn-Al alloys, the β phase and orthorhombic martensite were identified using X-ray diffraction. In the 8Mn-Al alloys, only the β phase was identified. In the 7, 7.5, and 8Mn-Al alloys, the electrical resistivity at room and liquid nitrogen temperature increased with increasing Al content due to dissolution of Al into the β phase, whereas the Vickers hardness decreased with increasing Al content due to decreasing formation of athermal omega by the addition of Al. Heat treatment at 673 K for 60 s almost completely returned deformed Ti-7 and 7.5Mn-3Al specimens to their original shapes, and heat treatment at 773 K for 60 s almost returned deformed Ti-8Mn-Al specimens to their original shapes.

Investigation of PO43- Removal in Aerated and Unaerated High Fe EAF-Slag Filter System

Phosphorus in wastewater is one the main culprit which accelerates eutrophication in waterbody if it is not being treated properly. Steel slag filter emerged as one alternative treatment for wastewater. However, the variousness of metal oxides including Fe in steel slag will affect the phosphorus removal efficiency. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the ability of a series of lab-scale high Fe electric arc furnace (EAF- slag) column filters in removing PO43- from synthetic wastewater. The systems were operated under aerated and unaerated within acidic and alkaline conditions. Synthetic wastewater contained 25 mg/L was prepared as the feed and monitored weekly basis for the PO43- removal efficiency and the total metals (Ca, Fe, and Mg) concentrations in the effluents. The results show that both aerated and unaerated high Fe EAF-slag filter systems have high PO43- removal efficiency under acidic condition, which unaerated system performed slightly better. It can be observed that unaerated systems performed better in removing PO43- at acidic and neutral pH values but not at extremely high pH. As for the PO43- removal mechanism was achieved by adsorption and precipitation at acidic pH and the concentration of Ca, Mg and Fe in effluents was related to the PO43- removal efficiency at different pH values.

Influence of Ammonium Dihydrogen Phosphate on Combustion Performance and Ash Characteristics during Combustion of Zhundong Coal

ABSTRACTIn this study, the co-combustion of Zhundong coal and NH4H2PO4 was investigated in a laboratory-scale tube furnace. The ash fusibility, combustion performance, and ash characteristics were quantified by experimental approaches. This study also used Gibbs free energy theory to analyze the chemical reactions. The results showed that NH4H2PO4 can extend the burning time of coal and reduce combustion intensity. Moreover, NH4H2PO4 significantly changed the composition of ash, which was caused by reactions between alkali/alkaline earth metals and NH4H2PO4, increasing the sodium retention ratio of the formed ash. In addition, the newly formed phosphate crystals (i.e., Mg2P2O7, AlPO4, and Ca3(PO4)2) with higher melting temperatures contributed to the increase in fusion temperature of the formed ash, and the sodium-containing crystals (i.e., Na2CaP2O7 and NaMg4(PO4)3) contributed to the increase in the sodium retention ratio. Furthermore, NH4H2PO4 had a significant effect on the microcosmic structure, with ash showing more rough and sintering being inhibited.

Experimental and numerical investigation into the softening Behavior of a packed bed of iron ore pellets

In this contribution, the softening process of a packed bed of pre-reduced pellets is investigated numerically and experimentally. For this purpose, pellets were reduced to different reduction degrees in a reduction apparatus. The range of reduction degree (RD) was selected 50 − 80%, which is an acceptable range for iron-bearing materials reaching the cohesive zone. Then, softening experiments under load for a packed bed of pre-reduced pellets in a lab-scale furnace at a temperature range of 800oC to initial melt formation point were carried out. For the modeling part, the newly developed eXtended Discrete Element Method (XDEM) is used. This method is able to predict the deformation of particles over temperature which needs an extension to include heat transfer to DEM. Heat transfer between particle-particle, particle-wall, and particle-gas is considered. To validate the XDEM results with the measurements, an appropriate relationship between Young's modulus of the pellet versus temperature has been estimated. The effect of load on the bed shrinkage is also discussed. FactSage version 7.0 software was used to compute the initial melt point with the phase equilibrium for a 5-component FeO − SiO2 − CaO − MgO − Al2O3 system.

In Situ Investigation of Slag-Metal Interactions in Top Blown Oxygen Converter upon Low-Voltage Application

High-temperature interactions in slag-metal steelmaking baths influenced by low-voltage application were analyzed. Different temperatures were tested with a laboratory-scale induction furnace and a top-blown oxygen converter, as well as with an industrial 160-t converter. The effects of low voltage application of different polarity on the slag formation, metal loss to iron oxides, temperature change, and metal composition are discussed.

Soot formation during biomass pyrolysis: Effects of temperature, water-leaching, and gas-phase residence time

Soot particles from biomass incomplete combustion, as a major source of particulate matter, arouse significant concerns due to its harmful impacts on environment and human health. In this paper, the effects of pyrolysis temperature, volatile residence time and water-leaching of biomass on soot formation during biomass pyrolysis were studied in a lab-scale furnace. The physicochemical characteristics of soot particles were comprehensively analyzed. Results show that soot is formed by the secondary reactions of volatiles from biomass thermal-cracking requiring a certain high temperature and long volatile residence time. With a short volatile residence time of 0.2 s, no soot is formed at 900–1200 °C. When the residence time increases to 2 s, soot is significantly formed at >1000 °C, when onion-like shell/core structures is observed. With pyrolysis temperature increasing, the soot particle size decreases and becomes uniform, the carbon content in soot increases, and the ordered structure of carbonization is enhanced, which leads to the degradation of soot oxidation reactivity. The water-leaching pretreatment for biomass leads to the increases of soot yield, particle size, and carbon content, as well as the KCl absence in soot and significantly lowered oxidation reactivity of soot. This indicates strong catalysis of potassium on soot production and consumption. Both gas and tar analyses support soot formation mechanism: (1) H2 yield increases due to formation of soot, but C2H2 yield reaches peak at 1000–1100 °C; (2) tar is dominated by PAHs, which molecules grow with the increase of temperature and residence time.

A refined global reaction mechanism for modeling coal combustion under moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution condition

This study first assessed the performance of four global mechanisms, including the Westbrook and Dryer (WD) and Jones and Lindstedt (JL) mechanisms, and two preliminary refined versions of them (WD1/JL1), for predicting coal combustion under moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) in a lab-scale furnace. The WD/WD1 mechanisms could predict coal MILD combustion well, while the other two performed unsatisfactorily as they greatly overestimated the CO levels. A refined global mechanism (RJLM) was then proposed by modifying some sub-reactions of the JL1 mechanism. The applicability of the proposed RJLM was subsequently tested by modeling coal MILD combustion in both lab- and pilot-scale furnaces. Generally, the RJLM can accurately predict the distributions of temperature and major species in either the lab- or pilot-scale furnace than the JL1 mechanism. The results also indicated that low-oxygen coal MILD combustion occurs under a slow-chemistry regime with Da ≈ 1 and Ka > 1. This demonstrates that coal MILD combustion is jointly controlled by the non-ignorable time scales of flow mixing and the chemical reaction. Moreover, as the JL/JL1 mechanisms overestimated the CO levels of coal MILD combustion, they overestimated the predominant role of slow chemistry in coal MILD combustion. In contrast, the RJLM can accurately predict the microscopic characteristics of coal MILD combustion.

New advancement perspectives of chloride additives on enhanced heavy metals removal and phosphorus fixation during thermal processing of sewage sludge

Abstract Controlling the removal of heavy metals such as Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) during the sewage sludge incineration and the recovery of phosphorus (P) from sewage sludge ash (SSA) remain challenging. Herein we aim to investigate the effect of the temperature, retention time and chlorinating agent additives (MgCl2 and KCl) on both the behavior of selected heavy metals and the fixed rate of phosphorus (P) during sewage sludge incineration. Dry sewage sludge was mixed with various amounts of chlorinating agent and treated by a laboratory scale furnace in the temperature range of 800–1000 °C for different retention times (30, 60 and 120 min). The results demonstrated that the removal efficiency of heavy metals exhibited an increasing tendency with the addition of chloride, especially in the cases of Cu, Zn and Pb. Moreover, the temperature and retention time demonstrated significant effects on the promotion of heavy metals removal. In the case of Pb 96% was removed at 800 °C within 120 min, while 86.6% of Cd was effectively removed at 1000 °C within 30 min. MgCl2 proved to be more effective than KCl in improving the removal efficiency of heavy metals, such that up to 81.6% of Cu, 84.9% of Pb and 73.5% of Zn was removed with the addition of 15%wt Cl−/sewage sludge (SS(, At 960 °C, the boiling point of cadmium chloride CdCl2 and CdO.Al2O3.2SiO2 retention time and chlorinating agent had no impact on Cd removal. It was also observed that high temperature was beneficial for the transformation of non-apatite inorganic phosphorus (NAIP) to apatite phosphorus (AP). At 900 °C this transformation is efficient for Phosphate fixation, which is evidence that apatite phosphorus (AP) has the ability to be more stable than non-apatite inorganic phosphorus (NAIP) at high temperature.

Modelling of high temperature furnaces under air-fuel and oxygen enriched conditions

A zero/one dimensional thermodynamic model was developed that can be used to determine the influence of oxygen enriched combustion (OEC) on the heat transfer, gas, and wall temperatures in a furnace. The model uses simple thermodynamic correlations, which makes it very time efficient (with calculation times of a few seconds), and therefore mean that it can be used in Microsoft Excel. This model was used to calculate the heat flux to a thermal load and the main temperatures (gas and wall) in a lab-scale furnace and industrial scale furnaces. The results were compared with both experimental measurements and the results of CFD calculations. The thermodynamic model showed good agreement with the measurements and the results of the CFD calculations, considering its simplicity. Thus, this model shows high potential for use to quickly determine the effects of OEC on industrial furnaces.

Global reaction mechanisms for MILD oxy-combustion of methane

This paper optimizes global reaction mechanisms under the MILD (Moderate and Intensive Low-oxygen Dilution) oxy-combustion combustion. Seven global mechanisms are compared and validated with two detailed mechanisms under the oxy-fuel combustion, MILD air-combustion, and MILD oxy-combustion conditions. The ability of these global models to capture the combustion process under different conditions is compared first using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of both the MILD oxy-combustion in a laboratory-scale furnace and non-premixed turbulent jet open flames, and later using a plug flow reactor (PFR) approach. Experiments of the MILD oxy-combustion are also carried out for the mechanism validation. The detailed comparison shows that the present optimized global mechanism significantly improves the prediction of temperatures, equilibrium concentrations of major species, and the peak CO concentration, relative to other global mechanisms, for the MILD oxy-combustion. The present refined mechanism is an appropriate global reaction mechanism for methane MILD oxy-combustion, if the computational cost of detailed reaction mechanism is unaffordable.

Numerical Simulation of Polysilicon Solid-liquid Interface Transmogrification in Heat Transfer Process

The shape of solid-liquid interface during the directional solidification process, which is difficult to be observed and measured in actual processes, controls the grain orientation and grain size of polysilicon ingot. We carried out numerical calculations of the directional solidification progress of polycrystalline silicon and invested the means to deal with the latent heat of solidification in numerical simulation. The distributions of the temperature field of the melt for the crystallization progress as well as the transformation of the solid-liquid interface were obtained. The simulation results are consistent with the experimental outcomes. The results show that the curvature of solid-liquid interface is small and stability, larger grain sized columnar crystal can be grown in the laboratory-scale furnace at a solidification rate of 10 μm•s-1. It shall provide important theoretical basis for metallurgical process and polysilicon production technology.

Manipulation of slag separation properties from pig iron nuggets with flux additions to dried greenball mixture

ABSTRACTPig iron nugget process is one of the direct smelting processes developed as an alternative to the traditional blast furnace process. Throughout the process, slag-free pig iron nuggets, which have similar properties to the blast furnace pig iron and white cast iron, are produced by single-stage heat treatment of dried greenballs. During the process, slag separation from the metallized areas can be enhanced by adjustment of the slag’s chemical and physical properties. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of flux addition rates (basic to acid ratio) to the dried greenball mixture on pig iron nugget production and slag separation. Thus, this study involved the heat treatment of six different greenball mixtures, which contained various amounts of limestone addition (basic to acid ratios, 0, 0.63, 1.02, 1.42, 1.85, and 2.29) utilizing a laboratory-scale resistance box furnace or simultaneous differential scanning calorimetry and thermalgravimetric analyzer. The samples produced by heating in the box furnace were analyzed for their morphological and chemical properties utilizing optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), macroscopic observations, iron titrations, and atomic absorption spectroscopy. It was determined that the highest percentage of iron yield in the nugget for the process and the highest distribution of iron in magnetic slag were obtained when utilizing the greenball mixture, which contained 7.5 wt% limestone as flux (basic to acid ratio of 1.42).