Development of Regenerative Burner System for Radiant Tubes

In furnaces and other heating facilities, exhaust heat recovery systems with recouperators have been used extensively as an all-purpose energy-saving system. However, the temperature of the preheated air recovered by the recouperator is around 500°C. The exhaust heat recovery ratio is approximately 50%, and it is difficult to recovering more exhaust heat due to restrictions on cost and technology. In exhaust heat recovery systems with heat regenerators, after the regenerator media has been exposed to the exhaust gas for a given time and has accumulated heat, the air passes through the regenerator media to be preheated. Once the heat capacity and changeover time have been set, the preheated air temperature reaches the combustion gas temperature at the inlet of the regenerator media. This preheating system, which has already been used in glass melting furnaces or in the hot stoves found in blast furnaces, provides a higher exhaust heat recovery ratio of 70% to 80%.