The cyclone-type furnace capable Of achieving greater combustion efficiency and producing high temperatures is sure to be a hot favourite with industrialists
COULD something regarded as a bane by
the farmer be a boon to the industrialist?
Cyclones, provided they occur in furnaces, could be just that something.
Cyclone-type furnaces are known for
their versatility and efficient combustion of solid, liquid and gaseous
fuels. Such a combustion system is particularly suitable for burning high-ash,
non-coking coal and has already proved
its utility elsewhere in the world.
In a cyclone furnace, the fuel and the
combustion air undergoes a strong,
swirling motion. The high degree of turbulence and the consequent mixing
result in stable and high-intensity
combustion. A good rate of combustion
efficiency and high temperature is
normally attained.
The Bhubaneswar- based Regional
Research Laboratory (RRL) of the
Council for Scientific dnd Industrial
Research has taken up research and
development (R&D) work with the
objective of developing a cyclone combustion process to burn high - ash and
high-volatile Indian coals. But this
could find other applications too.
Cyclone furnaces could prove their
mettle not just in coal-fired but
chemical and metallurgical industries
too, where at present, oil-firing systems
are in operation.
Cyclone combustion is also considered as an alternative system for achieving the very high temperatures necessary in coal-fired magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) power generation. A
cyclone system has a number of advantages over the conventional pulverised
coal firing systems. The latter is usually
slow and the temperature in the furnace
is usually limited to 1,200-1,3000c. The
cyclone furnace, which overcomes these
shortcomings, ensures a much faster
combustion. The ash-handling system
is also much more simplified, with
flyash carryover being minimised. In
general, a cyclone furnace is capable of
providing operational flexibility with
the possibility of using different types of
coal with varying ash and moisture
content.
Various types of cyclone furnaces
have been developed in many countries,
They are mostly used in fired boilers
and gas turbine systems. In addition,
developmental work on cyclone-type
furnaces is being done to use them as
process heaters in industries. The
cyclone furnaces in these countries burn
coal whose ash content ranges from 10-
30 per cent and ash silica content from
55-65 per cent. The furnace temperatures required are 1,500-1,7000c. The
Indian non-coking coal, on the other
hand, has 30-45 per cent ash content,
while the silica content stands at a very
high 75-83 per cent. Therefore, the slag
tap firing of these coals obviously
requires a much higher furnace temperature along with the need for special
design considerations.
By undertaking an in-house R&D
programme, the Rat. has developed an
experimental cyclone furnace with 100
kg/hr coal burning capacity. This furnace has been tested with coals of varying ash content. The experimental
cyclone furnace has to a large extent
been able to meet the expected performance standards. Plans to develop the
design of an industrial-scale cyclone
furnace have been chalked out for the
future.
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