ZIM project ZF4042202RE6

Development of a recuperator for the hybrid combustion air pre-heating in industrial furnaces

The majo­ri­ty of indus­tri­al fur­naces in the metal, cera­mic and che­mi­cal indus­tries use fos­sil fuels, espe­ci­al­ly gas, oil and coal. For ener­gy-effi­ci­ent ope­ra­ti­on, the fur­naces are equip­ped with a heat reco­very sys­tem for pre­hea­ting the com­bus­ti­on air. Cen­tral recup­er­a­tors are often used for this pur­po­se. An essen­ti­al requi­re­ment for plant ope­ra­tors is the use of elec­tri­ci­ty from rene­wa­ble ener­gy sources such as wind or solar ener­gy. Due to the incre­asing fee­ding of wind and solar ener­gy into the power grid, the out­put gene­ra­ted is sub­ject to con­sidera­ble fluc­tua­tions. In com­bi­na­ti­on with the libe­ra­li­sa­ti­on of the ener­gy mar­ket this leads to an incre­asing vola­ti­li­ty of the elec­tri­ci­ty price.

The aim of the rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment pro­ject is to impro­ve the ener­gy effi­ci­en­cy and cost-effec­ti­ve­ness of gas-fired indus­tri­al fur­naces with com­bus­ti­on air pre­hea­ting via cen­tral recup­er­a­tors. For this pur­po­se, the deve­lo­p­ment of a new hybrid recup­er­a­tor with inte­gra­ted, elec­tri­cal com­bus­ti­on air pre­hea­ting and adap­ti­ve con­trol of the air volu­me flows will be pursued.

This inno­va­ti­ve pro­duct will be rea­li­sed by using cen­tral tube bund­le recup­er­a­tors with inte­gra­ted elec­tri­cal hea­ting ele­ments, which enable hybrid com­bus­ti­on air pre­hea­ting both through the heat of the exhaust gas and with elec­tri­cal ener­gy, thus ensu­ring fle­xi­ble power sup­p­ly, espe­ci­al­ly from excess elec­tri­ci­ty, from rene­wa­ble ener­gy sources. Nevert­hel­ess, the sys­tem is ful­ly func­tion­al in de-ener­gi­sed ope­ra­ti­on. This also makes it pos­si­ble to retro­fit exis­ting, exclu­si­ve­ly gas-fired plants for the pro­por­tio­nal use of elec­tri­ci­ty from rene­wa­ble ener­gy sources and to con­tri­bu­te to the sta­bi­li­ty of the elec­tri­ci­ty grid and the suc­cess of the ener­gy sys­tem trans­for­ma­ti­on. The joint rese­arch pro­ject com­pri­ses the expe­ri­men­tal and nume­ri­cal design, con­s­truc­tion and manu­fac­tu­re of a pro­to­ty­pe of the hybrid recuperator.

BMWi_Web_de_WBZlogo_zim

The rese­arch pro­ject with the fun­ding code ZF4042202RE6 is fun­ded by the Fede­ral Minis­try of Eco­no­mics and Ener­gy on the basis of a reso­lu­ti­on of the Ger­man Bundestag.