WORKING PRINCIPLE

Regenerative Burners work in pairs in a cyclic manner. When one of the burners of the pair is firing, the flue gases pass through the other burner. The burner contains a ‘heat storage media’ consisting of refractory material. When the flue gases pass through the refractory media, heat of the flue gases is stored in this media. After a short interval of pre-set cycling time (30-60 seconds), the firing of the pair of burners is switched. The burner that was firing is ‘switched off’ and the burner with heated media starts firing. By doing so, heat stored in the refractory media is recovered by combustion air and conveyed back to the furnace. Therefore, very high air preheat temperatures (150-250⁰C below furnace temperature) and hence very good furnace efficiencies are achieved.

WHY IS IT BETTER THAN RECUPERATOR?

In recuperators, heat of flue gases is transferred to combustion air through a heat transfer surface. Therefore, materials of heat transfer tubes tend to fail beyond a certain temperature putting a limit on the maximum achievable combustion air preheat temperatures. In regenerative burners, there is no such limit as heat is absorbed and then released through a refractory media. For example, if a forging furnace operates at 1300⁰C, combustion air can be preheated to 1000-1100⁰C using regenerative burners, which is unthinkable with recuperators.

HOW FURNACE PRODUCTION CAN BE INCREASED?

With regenerative burners, entire furnace can be maintained at a nearly flat temperature profile without losing excessive heat to exhaust gases. Hence, material being heated requires lower retention time and so yielding higher production. In the case of a new installation, smaller furnace would serve the purpose with savings in capex as well!

REDUCTION IN CO2 EMISSIONS

CO₂ emissions are directly proportional to fuel consumption. Since regenerative burners enable 15-50% reduction in fuel consumption, corresponding reduction in CO₂ emissions are achieved.

REVERSING CYCLE TIME

Normally, burners reversing cycle is set to 30-60 seconds. In special cases, burners can be designed for specific cycle times as per requirement.

ROBUST & RELIABLE REVERSING VALVES

COSMO’s proprietary reversing valves (used for cyclic operation of burners) are of robust design – free from complicated electronics. These are made so as to be easily maintainable by average technicians.

CUSTOM ENGINEERED COMBUSTION SYSTEM

We understand that each furnace / application has a unique requirement. Therefore, we study your existing or proposed furnace, appropriately design the entire combustion system and offer you custom engineered solution (consisting of appropriate number & size of regenerative burners, reversing valves, interconnecting piping, fans, etc.).

HOW MUCH FUEL CAN BE SAVED

Quantity of fuel that can be saved would depend upon the present level of efficiency, temperature of furnace, temperature of exhaust gases and fuel being used. The expected savings could be in the range of 15-50%. In high temperature applications like forging or melting, savings of the order of 40% can be expected in most cases.

IN MOST CASES, PAYBACK PERIODS ARE EXPECTED TO BE LESS THAN 1 YEAR