A combustion controller (C) controls the relative rates at which a combustion component source (B) supplies fuel, air, and oxygen to nozzles (A). A fuel source (30) supplies fuel to the burners at a rate (50 in FIG. 2) which is appropriate to produce a desired amount of heat. A blower (32) supplies air at a fixed rate (52b) and an oxygen source supplies oxygen gas at a rate (54) in proportion to the fuel supply rate such that stoichiometrically balanced combustion is maintained. To decrease the combustion rate, the air supply rate remains constant (52b) as the fuel and oxygen rich gas supply rates are decreased. After the oxygen rich gas supply rate reaches zero, the combustion rate is further reduced by decreasing the fuel supply rate and the air supply rate (52a) in stoichiometric proportion. In this manner, a relatively high nozzle velocity is maintained over a wide range of combustion rates.
A process for smelting metallic raw materials in a shaft furnace having beds of metallic raw material and coke comprises injecting concurrently into the shaft furnace (1) a mixture of flue gases and oxygen at a subsonic velocity and (2) preheated oxygen at supersonic velocity wherein the supersonic velocity oxygen is injected into the coke bed.
The invention relates to a method for heating a furnace comprising at least one burner capable of operating on an oxidant the oxygen content of which can vary; in a first period (P1) the burner is supplied with practically pure oxygen so as to provide a large amount of energy for heating, in a second period (P2) the burner is supplied with an oxidant, the oxygen content of which can vary between about 100% and 21%, in a third period (P3), the burner is supplied with an oxidant, the oxygen content of which is minimal, and which corresponds to a pilot period which requires only a small amount of heating energy. This method makes it possible to optimize the use of the furnace according to the desired thermal performance and oxidant operating costs.
This invention relates to a two-fluid nozzle which is adjustable to provide a substantially constant mixing energy. Adjustment of the two-fluid nozzle is made in accordance with the pressure and mass flow values of the liquid and gas fed to the nozzle. A microprocessor calculates the mixing energy from these values and provides an output to the nozzle to adjust it should its mixing energy be in variance with a pre-selected mixing energy.
In a combustion unit, a fuel collision member is disposed between a fuel injection valve and a combustion chamber. The fuel collision member is positioned so that, a part of fuel injected from said fuel injection valve is introduced into the combustion chamber while colliding with the fuel collision member, and the other part of fuel is directly introduced into the combustion chamber without colliding with the fuel collision member. Thus, fuel introduced into the combustion chamber is atomized while being introduced into the combustion chamber in a wide range.
An oxygen-fuel burner is disclosed which has a wide range of operation, allowing turn-down ratios of 5 to 1. In addition, the burner construction, which is not liquid cooled, maintains an acceptable burner tip temperature by having a tip which extends outwardly beyond the nose portion of the burner such that the oxygen flows columnarly therealong and functions to remove heat from the tip. In addition a delayed combustion is obtained by the gas discharge tip being axially spaced apart from the oxygen discharge orifice. The burner produces sufficient heat to permit the melting of batch materials to produce molten glass without the use of regenerators or recuperators.
