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Process equipment

A) Furnace
A furnace is a device used for high-temperature heating commonly
used in industry for various purposes such as making steel and heat treating
of materials to change their molecular structure. The name furnace is
derived from Greek word fornax, which means oven. In American English and
Canadian English usage, the term furnace on its own refers to the household
heating systems based on a central furnace (known either as a boiler, or a
heater in British English), and sometimes as a synonym for kiln, a device
used in the production of ceramics. In British English, a furnace is an
industrial furnace used for many things, such as the extraction of metal from
ore (smelting) or in oil refineries and other chemical plants, for example as
the heat source for fractional distillation columns.
Historically, the Romans were created the idea at the first place,
called as the hypocaust. It was actually used as a form of under-floor heating
using a fire at one corner of a basement with the exhaust vented through
flues in the walls to the chimneys. This form could only be used in stone or
brick homes. There was a very high chance for fire and suffocation through
this idea. The generation of heat in furnaces is by burning fuel but back then,
furnaces burned wood. In the seventeenth century, coal began to replace
wood as a primary fuel which lasted until the early 1940s where gas then
became the primary fuel. After the 1970s, gas furnaces were replaced by
electric furnaces due to energy crisis. Electrical furnaces are still popular until
today but gas furnaces still remain in homes as a form of home heating
equipment. Wood and coal burning furnaces require a constant feeding for
maintaining warmth in homes.
Today's modern furnace uses stainless steel, aluminized steel,
aluminum, brass, copper, and fiberglass. Stainless steel is used in the heat
exchangers for corrosion resistance. Aluminized steel is used to construct the
frame, blowers, and burners. Brass is used for valves, and copper in the
electrical wiring. Fiberglass is used insulate the cabinet.

In industrial application, industrial furnaces function as a source of


heat for fuel combustion or electricity, to heat without the change of phase,
as a process cycle for batch or continuous, a mode of heat application
whether direct or indirect, and where the atmosphere in the furnace is
vacuum. In industrial furnaces, the source of heat may be fuel-fired or even
electric. Electric furnaces are usually used in the metallurgical and metaltreatment industries. Both electrical and fuel-fired furnaces are similarly
functional but when it comes to an occasional passing reference, an electrical
furnace will not be considered. Process materials will be heated, dried,
melted or reacted in industrial furnaces. Melting which includes peculiar
difficulties due to the involvement of a solid feed, a hot liquid product and a
two-phase mixture in between. Glass furnaces are often used for this purpose
and requires highly radiative flames in order to promote heat transfer to the
feed charge and employs regenerators to conserve heat from the high
temperature process which is greater than 1813 Kelvin.

Industrial Furnace Design

Figure 1: schematic diagram of industrial furnace.

An industrial furnace or direct fired heater, is an equipment used to


provide heat for a process or can serve as reactor which provides heats of
reaction. Furnace designs vary as to its function, heating duty, type of fuel
and method of introducing combustion air. However, most process furnaces
have some common features.
Fuel flows into the burner and is burnt with air provided from an air
blower. There can be more than one burner in a particular furnace which can
be arranged in cells which heat a particular set of tubes. Burners can also be
floor mounted, wall mounted or roof mounted depending on design. The
flames heat up the tubes, which in turn heat the fluid inside in the first part of
the furnace known as the radiant section or firebox. In this chamber where
combustion takes place, the heat is transferred mainly by radiation to tubes
around the fire in the chamber. The heating fluid passes through the tubes
and is thus heated to the desired temperature. The gases from the
combustion are known as flue gas. After the flue gas leaves the firebox, most
furnace designs include a convection section where more heat is recovered
before venting to the atmosphere through the flue gas stack. (HTF=Heat
Transfer Fluid. Industries commonly use their furnaces to heat a secondary
fluid with special additives like anti-rust and high heat transfer efficiency. This
heated fluid is then circulated round the whole plant to heat exchangers to be
used wherever heat is needed instead of directly heating the product line as

the product or material may be volatile or prone to cracking at the furnace


temperature.)

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