The preheating of producer gas in regenerative furnaces

GT V01 1961023-034

 Changes in producer gas composition and heat content resulting from preheating have been determined on a number of industrial furnaces. With regenerators of rectangular brick packing in which preheat temperatures of over 1000°C are obtained in normal operation, it is shown that decomposition of tar vapours increases rapidly at preheat tenzperatures above 900" C, and decomposition offixed hydrocarbon gases above 1050" C. The thermal input to the furnace increases continuously with increasing preheat temperature, the gain in sensible heat far outweighing the loss of chemical energy through soot deposition. The only reason for limiting the preheat temperature below the maximum attainable may be the increasing loss of luminates from the gas associated with increasing temperature. In regenerators which gave lower preheat temperatures in normal operation, decomposition of hydrocarbons occurred at lower temperatures. It is suggested that the relation between preheat temperature and gas composition is dependent upon the manner in which gas flows within the regenerator, and the lower gas preheat temperature associated with regenerators of lower thermal efficiency does not necessarily give any advantage in reduced hydrocarbon decomposition.

G. A. Sparham & D. W. Gill
The British Coal Utilisation Research Association, Leatherhead, Surrey