New innovative fluidized bed furnace saves up to 15 percent energy

At Wire 2010, Wire Körner will launch a new generation of fluidized bed furnaces that eliminate the need for distributor tiles or distribution pipes. The new furnaces distinguish themselves by low energy consumption as well as low investment and maintenance costs. Premixing of the combustion gas outside the furnace guarantees uniform temperature distribution and reduced emissions.

The new, patent-pending furnaces dispense with distributor elements as typically used in conventional designs. This eliminates a number of components which used to be considered indispensible in the past, as the fairly complex and expensive distributor tiles, perforated distribution pipes or stand-by blowers.

The absence of the distributor equipment markedly reduces flow resistance inside the furnace. Hence the required blower capacity can be lower than that of competing designs by about 20 percent. Not only the smaller blower unit but also the overall simplified furnace design will markedly reduce capital costs. Additionally, the new design no longer requires a stand-by blower in the event of a power failure to provide cooling air to cool the steel structures, which were necessary in the past.

As the combustion gas is premixed outside the furnace, the new design achieves a uniform fuel-air mixing ratio throughout the fluidized bed and a homogeneous temperature distribution over the width and length. This results in higher combustion efficiency and lower emissions of unburned hydrocarbons.

Through carefully customized control algorithms, efficiency is maximized at all loads. This saves up to 15 percent energy. For a typically sized furnace this means more than 7,000 Euros per year saved in energy costs.

Peter Kordt, Managing Owner of Wire Körner, takes a pragmatic view. “What does not exist simply requires no energy and cannot fail. Moreover we have dramatically reduced the maintenance effort as there are fewer components to be maintained. For example, having to replace distributor elements is a thing of the past.”