FURNACES

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2005 Begell House Inc.

Printed 6/12/2006 from IP: 203.125.54.230
FURNACES
G. L. Shires
Leading to: Kilns; Plasma-arc furnaces

Introduction
A furnace is a device in which heat is generated and transferred to materials with the object of bringing about physical and
chemical changes. The source of heat is usually combustion of solid, liquid or gaseous fuel, or electrical energy applied
through resistance heating (Joule heating) or inductive heating. However, solar energy can provide a clean source of high
temperature if focused onto a small area. This was recognized over two hundred years ago by Lavoisier who built a large
mobile "magnifying glass" system, Figure 1, to bring about the combustion of metals in a sealed glass container and
subsequently the demise of the phlogiston theory.

Figure 1. Lavoisier's solar powered furnace c 1774.

Furnaces employing combustion produce a hot gas which transfers heat to the material by radiation and convection. Solids are
heated by direct contact, but fluids are usually heated indirectly, being carried inside pipes within the furnace. Alternatively, a
Regenerative Heat Exchanger may be used to transfer heat from the combustion gases. Indirect heating has the advantage
of avoiding contamination by combustion products.
There are two principle categories of indirect heating furnace. The first is that of Boilers, where the heat is used to generate
steam for power generation or process plant use. The second is that of furnaces designed to heat process fluids other than
water. Some of the latter category are conventional heaters used simply to increase the fluid temperature, others are process
heaters used to bring about physical and chemical changes in the products, for example distillation, and pyrolysis of
hydrocarbons or catalytic steam-gas reforming of synthetic natural gas.

Process Heaters
In the petrochemical industry process furnaces, or process heaters, are usually fired by oil or gas. They are designed to
ensure that the fluid receives the right amount of heat and has the required residence time within specified temperature limits.
This is achieved by appropriate disposition of tubes and careful control of firing rate and fluid flow. The following Figure 2
shows three typical geometries.

Figure 2. Process heaters. (From the Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Hemisphere Publications. With permission.)

Furnace Fuels
The following tables give the properties of gaseous, liquid and solid fuels used in furnaces. Gross calorific value includes the
heat released by the condensation and cooling of combustion products, and the combustion air/fuel ratio is the stoichiometric
value based on theoretically perfect combustion (see Combustion). In practice, excess air is required to ensure complete

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combustion. The excess is usually about 10% of the stoichiometric value for premixed gaseous fuels, 20% for distillate oil and
pulverized coal, and 30% for residual oil, although lower values may be achieved with efficient burners.
Table 1. Properties of selected gaseous fuelsa

(aFrom the Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Hemisphere Publications. With permission.)
Furnace Heat Balance
The rate of heat released in a fuel fired furnace is given by the product of the mass rate of feed of fuel,
value hf, i.e.,

, and the calorific

(1)
The heat generated by combustion appears initially as sensible heat in the gaseous products of combustion, generated at the
rate
. If this were an adiabatic process (i.e., no heat transfer), the gas would attain the adiabatic flame temperature, Tf,
given by

(2)

where T0 is the inlet air/fuel temperature and cpg an appropriate averaged specific heat capacity of the gases for the range T0
to Tf.
However, as illustrated in Figure 3, part of the heat generated passes to the tubes containing the process fluid at rate
part is lost through the furnace walls at rate
. The remainder escapes at rate
products leaving the furnace. The overall heat balance therefore is

and

as waste heat of the combustion

(3)

Because of this the actual gas temperature, Tg, reached in the furnace is less than the adiabatic flame temperature, Tf.

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Neglecting wall losses an approximate value of Tg can be obtained from

(4)

For example, in a typical oil fired furnace the value of Tf is 2,200 K and the value of Tg is 1,300 K [Shires, Hewitt and Bott
(1994)].
Table 2. Properties of selected liquid and solid fuelsa

(aFrom the Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Hemisphere Publications. With permission.)

Figure 3. Furnace heat balances.

The rate of heat transfer,

, from the hot gases to the tubes is a function of the gas temperature as well as the radiation
properties of the gases, the geometry of the furnace and tubes, and the emissivity of the tube surface. In applying simple
furnace models iteration is therefore necessary.

Furnace Radiation
In most process heaters, the major part of the heat transfer from the hot gases to the tubes is by radiation. To calculate the
radiative component it is necessary to know the effective emissivity, g, of the combustion gases (typical value 0.25). This is
dependent on the ratio of the partial pressures of CO2 and H2, the temperatures of the gas and the radiation source and the
effective size of the radiating gas cloud. The latter is represented by the term pLo, the product of partial pressure and effective

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length of the furnacea term first introduced by H. C. Hottel. For details of the procedure see Hottel and Sarofim (1967) and
Hewitt, Shires and Bott (1994).
The rate of heat transfer to the furnace product is also a function of the geometry of the tube banks and the fraction of the
furnace surface area covered by them.
If the effective area of the tubes, A1, is only a small fraction of the total area. At, (Figure 4a), the surface receives blackbody
radiation (see Radiative Heat Transfer) and the rate of heat transfer is independent of gas emissivity, g, i.e.,

(5)

where 1 is the effective emissivity of the receiving surface and T1 its temperature and is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant,
5.670 108 W/m2K4. On the other hand, if A1 is almost equal to the total surface area, At, then

(6)

Intermediate ratios are covered by the speckled surface equation [Hottel and Sarofim (1967)].

(7)

where C = A1/At.

Figure 4. Effect of heat sink area on effective emissivity. (a) Small heat sink area; (b) large heat sink area; (e) example based on
Eq. (7) with g = 0.3 and 1 = 0.85.

Effects of Tube Bank Geometry

In practice the area, A1, receiving radiation is a tube bank, Figure 5, which intercepts only a fraction of the incident radiation;
some passes through to the refractory wall and is re-irradiated. For a detailed analysis see Hottel and Sarofim (1967).

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Figure 5. Plane surface equivalent of tube bank heat sink; B = p/d.

The fraction of radiation intercepted by a single row of tubes having a pitch to diameter ratio B (equals p/d) is given by

(8)

Figure 6 shows F as a function of B for one and two rows of tubes.

Figure 6. Fraction of incident radiation intercepted by tubes. (From the Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Hemisphere
Publications. With permission.)

The effective emissivity based on the projected area using Eq. (7) and allowing for re-irradiation from the refractory backing is

(9)

This is illustrated in Figure 7 for a typical tube surface emissivity of 0.85.

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