Optimization of an Oxy-Fuel furnace
Purpose
This study was carried out to optimize an Oxy-Fuel furnace concerning the energy consumption by adjusting firing rates and burner positions.
Description
Based on furnace and operation data, the current furnace situation was simualted to set up a base case. In total 19 variations of the burner arrangement and firing distribution was modeled and compared.
Specific attention was paid to the simulation of the Oxy-Fuel combustion and the calculation of the result heat transfer from the combustion space to the glass. Both the combustion space and the glass melt was modeled to be able to simulate the changes melting behaviour, expecially the shape and thickness of the batch blancket.
Results
Due to a complete simulation of the complete glass melting furnace the optimal firing configuration was chosen based on energy consumption and the resulting glass quality. This study showed that even small changes of the firing rate or burner location can reduce the fuel consumption of the furnace easily by a few percent. Some burner arrangement results in comparable large fuel consumption increases and emission increased.
Based on the simulation study the burner arrangement of the Oxy-Fuel furnace was adjusted and the predicted fuel savings were realised.
