Furnace

The furnace known either as a boiler or a heater, and it uses in oil refineries. Fuel
gas is burned with air by a combustion device to generate the heat. The furnace is
of cabin type with horizontal tubes designed for a heat duty of 215 GJ/H. After
combustion, the resultant hot flue gas flows up through the stack and discharges
into the atmosphere. Recoverable heat from the flue gas is further removed in
the super heater section before the flue gas leaves the furnace through the stack.
Furnaces can be classified into four general categories, based on efficiency and
design.

Natural draft: The first category would be natural draft, atmospheric burner
furnaces. These furnaces consisted of cast-iron or riveted-steel heat exchangers
built within an outer shell of brick, masonry, or steel. The system was simple, had
few controls, a single automatic gas valve, and no blower. They have been
operated with wood, coke, coal, trash, paper, natural gas, and fuel oil.

Forced-air: The second category of residential furnace is the forced-air,

atmospheric burner style with a cast-iron or sectional steel heat exchanger. This
style furnace was used to replace the big, natural draft systems, and was
sometimes installed on the existing gravity duct work. The heated air was moved
by blowers which were belt driven and designed for a wide range of speeds.

Forced draft: The third category of furnace is the forced draft, mid-efficiency
furnace with a steel heat exchanger and multi-speed blower. These furnaces were
physically much more compact than the previous styles. These furnaces have
multi-speed blowers and were designed to work with central air-conditioning
systems.

Condensing: The fourth category of furnace is the high-efficiency, or condensing

furnace. High-efficiency furnaces can achieve from 89% to 98% fuel efficiency.
This style of furnace includes a sealed combustion area, combustion draft inducer
and a secondary heat exchanger. Because the heat exchanger removes most of
the heat from the exhaust gas, it actually condenses water vapor and other
chemicals.

Burners: The combustion device consists of four floor mounted burners. Each
burner has fuel gas and pilot gas lines, with a block valve on the pilot gas line and
an adjustable valve on the fuel gas line. Each burner also has an igniter and a
secondary air register.

Draft System: The air intake into the furnace box is by natural draft mechanism.
The tall structure provides the necessary draft at the base of the furnace for air to
flow through the burner assembly. A damper is provided at the furnace stack for
controlling the pressure in the furnace box.

The process feed is heated through 2 passes in the furnace. It is important to

maintain a uniform flow over the two passes. The fluid flow rate at each pass is
controlled two override controllers, Fuel Gas Low Pressure Controller (PC315L)
and Fuel Gas High Pressure Controller (PC316H), are provided to protect the
furnace from low and high fuel gas pressures respectively. The purpose of these
overrides is to ensure that the fuel gas pressure always stays in the stable
operating region of the burner flame. by its individual Flow Controller (FC110 &
FC120).

Furnace Arch Pressure Control (PC405): It is important to maintain the furnace

pressure to ensure that adequate amount of air (excess air) is provided for a given
fuel flow rate. Normally, the opening of the air registers is fixed and the air flow
rate is determined by the furnace pressure. As the furnace pressure increases, the
air flow rate decreases. Similarly, as the furnace pressure decreases, the air flow
rate increases.

Initial Conditions: Two initial conditions are provided. Each of them when loaded
starts the simulation at a particular operating condition of the furnace unit. The
initial conditions are:

a. Cold Start-Up Condition: In this initial condition the furnace unit is in a

complete shutdown state. The unit is at ambient conditions with no inventory in
any vessels. The startup exercise of the furnace unit can be performed with this
initial condition.

b. Design Operating Condition: This is the normal initial condition. In this initial
condition, the furnace unit is at a steady state with all burners in service. The
operating conditions are the same as the design operating conditions. This initial
condition can be used to study the effect of changes in operating conditions on
the performance of the unit. Also this initial condition can be used for studying
the effect of malfunctions and for performing the shutdown exercise of the unit.