DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF OPTIMELT™ THERMOCHEMICAL HEAT RECOVERY SYSTEM FOR OXY-FUEL FURNACES

Reference	Presenter	Authors (Institution)	Abstract
11-017	Abilio tasca	tasca, A.(White Martins Gases Industrias); Kobayashi, H.(Praxair, Inc); Laux, S.(Praxair, Inc); Bell, R.(Praxair, Inc); Francis, A.(Praxair, Inc);	The OPTIMELT™ Thermochemical Regenerator (TCR) process is an advanced heat recovery technology for oxy fuel fired glass furnaces. The technology is based on a unique waste heat recovery concept called thermo-chemical regeneration. The TCR stores waste heat from the hot oxy-fuel flue gas in regenerator beds and uses this energy to reform a mixture of natural gas and recirculated flue gas in endothermic chemical reactions to hot syngas containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide, soot and other hydrocarbons. Hot syngas is combusted with oxygen in the furnace. Compared to an oxy-fuel fired furnace without heat recovery about 60% of the sensible heat in the flue gas is recovered and the fuel consumption is reduced by about 20%. As compared with a typical 300 tpd air fired regenerative furnace fuel savings is projected to be about 30% in the mid campaign. The first TCR system was installed on a 50 tpd container glass furnace in Mexico in 2014. It has been in continuous commercial operation for three years. Fuel and oxygen savings of 15 to 18% and low NOx emissions were demonstrated as compared with the oxy-fuel fired condition. A larger TCR system was installed on an oxy-fuel fired tableware furnace at Libbey’s Leerdam plant in the Netherlands in late 2017. This paper will update the operational experience, refractory performance and maintenance requirements of the TCR system on the 50 t/d commercial container glass furnace. The technology implemented at Libbey will be presented by reviewing the engineering design, scale-up, and integration with the oxy-fuel furnace. The results of the first six months of operation will be discussed by comparing the fuel consumption and emissions with and without the TCR heat recovery system.
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