Furnace - Venturi scrubber improvement

Dr.Nick.Sokolov CRD

Nick Sokolov 2008

Dr.Nick.Sokolov CRD
Ing. PhD(Wavelets).MS.BE.(Mech&Elec) owner CRD P/L
Follow

Furnace - Venturi scrubber improvement

Jan 5, 2015
Background on furnace venturi scrubber
Control of any furnace operation and scrubbing the offgas is an important activity in any
smelting operation. Our need for base metals in future will continue unabated. As such most
smelting operations are dependent on removal of toxic gas and particles.

This is a cut away drawing of venturi scrubber functionality depicted in photo.

One can not change the practices of smelting that existed for 4000 years but they can be
improved by looking at details - one such details is a venturi system and control plug. The job
of such a system is critical control of a negative pressure in the furnace - in simple terms it
keeps the furnace floor clear of any toxic smoke.
The size of a venturi, plug and control system can vary in size but generally they are about
the size of the furnace itself. Venturi is feed with cooling gas generated from the furnace
smelting operation. Venturi plug controls the volume of offgas that can be passed through the
system - it is controlled by a need for negative pressure on the furnace floor. Constant Water

is added at top of the plug insuring removal of partials and accretions. That water is removed
and sent to a settling ponds.
What is the problem?
1. Large volume of air and water buffer against the venturi plug causing it to become battered
and starts to leak water.
2. As venturi plug is large and normally empty space the hanger and the chain exceed the load
capacity and hanger and it falls down the venturi well usually 5-10m deep. ( despite drainage
provided )
3. Furnace floor is evacuated as furnace experiences a positive pressure flooding the smelting
floor with toxic off gas. Shutting production for few days.
4. If it is a simple fall the venturi plug hanger is replaced and furnace operation is resumed.
5. If the venturi plug needs to be replace this causes a further delay in production.
6. The Venturi plug is made of high Alloy material resistant to a corrosive environment of the
wet offgas. The Alloy and welding procedures are not cheap.
7. The Shut down of furnace occurs several times a year while the offgas venturi plug is
repaired. That repair might last from 3 - 10 days of lost production.
8. Computer control screw wear rendered venturi plug ineffective as thread would wear down
and unwanted un-scrubbed toxic gas and particles would make their way to the dust removal
and out to the atmosphere. Making the system less then green...
What was done in the past?
1. This problem is persistent and is usually handled by various levels of expertise.
2. Its given to junior engineers and vacation students - it makes the rounds of the engineering
office.
3. its handled by a committee - RCA looks at the causes of the problem.
4. Hanger was redesigned but hanger failed from fatigue in metal both at the hanger and at
the venturi plug. This has been done in the past by redesignin the hanger and providing rails
to stop oscillating movement of the plug. The system still failed.
This is a "white board".jpg depiction of the problem.

S
olution
1. Provide a seating platform so that in case of a hanger failure the venturi plug only falls into
a seating position. That seating position will allow the production to wind down to a
minimum but not shut down the production. Above all it will maintain negative pressure on
the furnace floor and avoid risk to workers and need to evacuate the smelter.
2. Redesign the hanger - to provide rotation and stability while being buffered by the water
and offgas ( much what is done with projectiles in flight - rotation provides stability )
What was done.
1. Venturi scrubber was modelled using CFX for min flow of air and minimum seating
position. ( nothing to complex )
2. Seat was designed not to obstruct air flow. ( when plug falls it only falls short distance and
is accessible from the access hatch ) The "following figure shows in green a "seating"
element to accommodate hanger failure and provide minimum flow of offgas to keep the
furnace under positive pressure. The seating uses an existing guide rails provided to stop the
plug from "moving about" in strong air/water flow.

3. Hanger was redesigned and modelled in FEA to minimize the fatigue and dead weight.
This FEA figure clearly shows that hanger was under designed, following figure shows min
design improvement.

With Small design improvement - no more hanger failure...

4. The Venturi attachment points were modelled in FEA stress for Fatigue. Following is FEA
analysis jpg of the plug attachment points.

5. Rotation was induced into the hanger by providing rotational vanes on top of the plug.
( this reduced the fatigue load in the hanger - no oscillations from water and off gas). See
figure above ( purple cap on top of the plug ) - vanes provide driving force for rotation and
stability of the plug.

C
entral lifting lug has now been repurposed for a bearing - easily disassembled by simply
removing a pin. Top part consist of bearing and stationary vanes to which the rotating vanes
are attached. Older hanging rods were repurposed for transmitting rotation. And here is full
assembly and exploded view.

T
he image on the right shows two extreme positions of the plug - top fully open and seated
position allowing min flow to maintain positive pressure at the furnace.
6. All modifications were fitted to existing venturi system without modification.
Conclusion
The modification to the venture plug system extended the life of the computer control
elements of the venturi system and reduced the repair required and loss of production to
furnace implanting my design.
Solution was simple I made the plug rotate which induced stability and added small
modification to a hanger - obvious now but not before. Its all about simple solutions.
Most solutions are simple to others once they become common knowledge and are devalued
in their importance.

I hope this modification will also help your furnace to improve operation and become
greener.
This modification was designed for BHPB OD - they have 3 venturi systems. I moved to
another project and have not seen the implementation.
I will publish more of my simple solutions to a complex and persistent problems encountered
in the mining and processing industry. For a problem to make my list it had to be a persistent
problem lasting more then 5 years and had number of committees look for a solution.
Most of my solution involved some form of modelling either FEA, CFX or simply
Math....but its about the level of depth one uses to get to a solution that is important. We all
know that modelling can take large amount of computing and could appear to be a dog
chasing its tail. My aim has always been to keep the modelling simple to start and see how
we go from there... sometimes it is not that important to increase the level of complexity in
modelling.
Thank you for reading my post.