Industrial Furnace Technology

Cont­act per­son Fur­nace mecha­nics: Domi­nik Büschgens
Cont­act per­son Com­bus­ti­on and Bur­ner Tech­no­lo­gies: Dr.-Ing. Nico Schmitz
Cont­act per­son Rene­wa­ble ener­gy and low CO₂ pro­cess hea­ting: Dr.-Ing. Chris­ti­an Schwotzer

Areas of research

The core of the acti­vi­ties in this rese­arch group is for­med by pro­cess opti­miza­ti­on and pro­cess deve­lo­p­ment in the sec­tor of the metal-working indus­try. To impro­ve the ener­gy and resour­ce effi­ci­en­cy of ther­mo­tech­ni­cal plants like indus­tri­al fur­naces, a pro­found under­stan­ding of flow and heat trans­fer phe­no­me­na is essen­ti­al. The pro­ces­ses are inves­ti­ga­ted using phy­si­cal and nume­ri­cal models. To do this, a num­ber of hot and cold test stands are available and equip­ped with exten­si­ve mea­su­re­ment instru­men­ta­ti­on. Apart from that, empi­ri­cal and ana­ly­ti­cal mode­ling as well as simu­la­ti­ons based on Com­pu­ta­tio­nal Flu­id Dyna­mics (CFD) are used. The com­bi­na­ti­on of expe­ri­men­tal and nume­ri­cal inves­ti­ga­ti­ons allows for a com­pre­hen­si­ve repre­sen­ta­ti­on of the phy­si­cal phe­no­me­na. The rese­arch is focu­sed on the fol­lo­wing areas:

Indus­tri­al fur­naces aerodynamics:

• Hot gas ven­ti­la­tors for high tem­pe­ra­tu­re applications
• Heat intro­duc­tion into indus­tri­al fur­naces, direct (gas fired) or indi­rect hea­ting (gas or elec­tri­cal­ly hea­ted radi­ant tubes)
• Con­di­ti­ons of heat and mass trans­fer on con­s­truc­tion­al ele­ments of indus­tri­al furnaces
• Nozz­le assem­blies for fur­naces with high con­vec­ti­ve heat trans­fer (cham­ber fur­naces, strip flo­ta­ti­on fur­naces, etc.)

Pro­cess gas furnaces:

• Opti­miza­ti­on of gas exch­an­ge strategies
• Con­trol of pro­cess gas exchange
• Deve­lo­p­ment of metal oxi­de sensors

Com­bus­ti­on:

• Con­s­truc­tion and opti­miza­ti­on of burners
• Direct Fla­me Impinge­ment (DFI)
• Fla­me­l­ess com­bus­ti­on (FLOX)
• Com­bus­ti­on under oxy­gen defi­ci­en­cy con­di­ti­ons to redu­ce oxi­da­ti­on of cop­per and steel
• Com­bus­ti­on dia­gno­stics using OH* visua­liza­ti­on and laser indu­ced fluo­re­s­cence (LIF)

Model­ling and simulation:

• Recrystal­liza­ti­on and grain growth of cop­per and brass
• Flu­id-Struc­tur-Inter­ac­tion: effects of flu­id flow and ther­mo­tech­ni­cal phe­no­me­na on load and fur­nace housing
• Com­bus­ti­on in dif­fe­rent applications

Ano­ther still emer­ging rese­arch topic are hybrid hea­ting con­cepts. Most of the indus­tri­al fur­naces are using fos­si­le fuels, espe­ci­al­ly natu­ral gas, oil or coal. Against the back­ground of the so cal­led “Ener­gie­wen­de” (ener­gy tran­si­ti­on) con­ven­tio­nal fuels shall be sub­sti­tu­ted more and more by elec­tri­cal power from rene­wa­ble sources and the­r­e­fo­re con­tri­bu­te to the sta­bi­li­ty of the elec­tri­cal grid (power to heat). To imple­ment the­se chan­ges, sys­te­ma­tic rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment of new inno­va­ti­ve con­cepts for ther­mo­tech­ni­cal plants and indus­tri­al fur­naces is needed.

Ongoing research projects

CO2-neu­tral pro­cess heat generation

Incre­asing the ener­gy and resour­ce effi­ci­en­cy of the recy­cling of orga­nic-con­ta­mi­na­ted alu­mi­ni­um scrap – ReOr­gAl (BMWi)

Deve­lo­p­ment of metal­lic high-per­for­mance recup­er­a­tors for the deve­lo­p­ment of new fields of appli­ca­ti­on (AiF ZIM)

Defi­ned set­ting of heat trans­fer pro­files in spray nozz­le fields for opti­miza­ti­on of heat tre­at­ment in con­ti­nuous strip plants (AiF IGF)

Incre­asing the ther­mo­me­cha­ni­cal sta­bi­li­ty of cross-flow fans for use in ther­mopro­ces­sing plants (AiF IGF)

Deve­lo­p­ment of a novel, fle­xi­ble machi­ning pro­cess for the pro­duc­tion of quartz glass com­pon­ents (AiF ZIM)

Ther­mal and mate­ri­al effects of hydro­gen atmo­sphe­res during heat tre­at­ment (AiF IGF)

Pos­si­ble appli­ca­ti­ons of decen­tra­li­zed oxy­gen gene­ra­ti­on in indus­tri­al fur­naces (AiF IGF)

Ther­mal cha­rac­te­riza­ti­on of sur­face cont­acts (AiF IGF)

Tail­o­red Hea­ting in Hot Forming (AiF IGF)

Increased sur­face area and ser­vice life of radi­ant hea­ting pipes through the use of struc­tu­red sheets (AiF IGF)

Completed research projects

• Rene­wa­ble resi­den­ti­al hea­ting with fast pyro­ly­sis bio-oil — Residue2Heat (EU H2020)
• New tun­nel kiln con­cept for ener­gy-effi­ci­ent firing of bricks (AiF IGF)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of inno­va­ti­ve rege­ne­ra­tively hea­ted radi­ant hea­ting tubes for use in heat tre­at­ment plants with small instal­la­ti­on space (AiF ZIM)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of an inter­ac­ti­ve batch plan­ning sys­tem for plas­ma nitri­ding plants (AiF ZIM)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of an inno­va­ti­ve hot iso­sta­tic press for the com­bi­ned com­pac­tion and heat tre­at­ment of semi-finis­hed pro­ducts and com­pon­ents (AiF ZIM)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of a recup­er­a­tor for the hybrid com­bus­ti­on air pre-hea­ting in indus­tri­al fur­naces (AiF ZIM)
• Inno­va­ti­on Forum Hybrid-Hea­ting “Poten­ti­als of Hybrid Hea­ting Tech­no­lo­gies for Indus­tri­al Fur­naces as a Con­tri­bu­ti­on to the Ener­gie­wen­de” (BMBF Inno­va­ti­ons­fo­ren Mittelstand)
• Influence of heat trans­fer on the pro­cess sta­bi­li­ty of con­ti­nuous strip tre­at­ment plants (AiF IGF)
• Influence of ther­mal load chan­ges on the ser­vice life of high­ly stres­sed fur­nace com­pon­ents made from metal­lic high tem­pe­ra­tu­re mate­ri­als (AiF IGF)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of ener­gy effi­ci­ent bur­ners for heat tre­at­ment plants with redu­cing / pro­tec­ti­ve gas atmo­sphe­re (AiF ZIM)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of cross-flow fans for the use in ther­mopro­cess plants (AiF IGF)
• Device for the mea­su­re­ment of high volu­me flows at high tem­pe­ra­tures in indus­tri­al fur­naces (AiF IGF)
• Expan­si­on of the limi­ta­ti­ons of use of the FLOX tech­no­lo­gy for low and high bur­ner powers (BMWi)
• Sta­bi­li­ty con­side­ra­ti­ons for metal­lic strips under the influence of nozz­le fields (AiF IGF)
• Impro­ve­ment of ser­vice life of metal­lic recir­cu­la­ting radi­ant hea­ting tubes for indus­tri­al fur­naces by redu­cing ther­mal stres­ses (AiF IGF)
• Pro­cess deve­lo­p­ment for non-sca­ling rehea­ting of metal­lic semi-finis­hed pro­ducts (AiF IGF)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of a mul­ti-lay­er cham­ber fur­nace for the press har­dening of sheet metal blanks for the auto­mo­ti­ve indus­try with the aim of impro­ving eco­no­mic effi­ci­en­cy (AiF ZIM)
• Device for volu­me flow mea­su­re­ment during high con­vec­ti­ve heat tre­at­ment (AiF IGF)
• Impro­ve­ment of the ser­vice life of metal­lic com­pon­ents in indus­tri­al fur­nace engi­nee­ring (AiF IGF)
• Deve­lo­p­ment of metal oxi­de sen­sors for gas ana­ly­sis for the con­trol of gas atmo­sphe­res in indus­tri­al fur­naces (AiF IGF)
• Impro­ve­ment of pro­duct qua­li­ty and eco­no­my of indus­tri­al fur­naces with pro­tec­ti­ve gas atmo­sphe­re by opti­miza­ti­on of the chan­ge of fur­nace atmo­sphe­re (AiF IGF)