Regenerative Burners for Reheating Furnaces

A regenerative burner is a heat recovery system that recovers the waste heat of the furnace exhaust gas to heat-up the combustion air of the furnace. The regenerative burner uses heat reservoirs and dual heat-recovering generators at each burner. During combustion, one side of a burner combusts fuel while the other accumulates the exhaust heat into the heat-recovering generator. Then the burners switch so that the one accumulating heat combusts the fuel and the other now accumulates exhaust heat. Use of regenerative burners for reheating furnaces can provide significant energy savings.  

Development Status Products
Commercial
Hot rolled steel

Regenerative Burners for Reheating FurnacesCosts & Benefits

Parent Process: Rolling Mills
Energy Savings Potential

NEDO reports that using regenerative burners on a 110 t/h capacity billet reheating furnace (operating at 1050 oC) can reduce the energy consumption by 0.18 to 0.21 GJ/t-steel, as compared a conventional furnace.  Annual energy savings are reported to be 9.3 to 11.6 GWh ((NEDO, 2008. p. 88)
CO2 Emission Reduction Potential

Up to 50% NOx reduction is possible with high temperature combustion.  CO2 emissions will also be reduced according to the reduced fuel consumption. 
Costs

Retrofiting costs for three pairs of regenerative burners for a 110 t/h furnace were ¥9 million for equipment and  ¥1 million for construction.
The payback time for the overall investment was 0.7 years (at a heavy fuel oil cost of ¥433/GJ) (NEDO, 2008. p. 89)

Regenerative Burners for Reheating FurnacesSchematic

Regenerative Burners for Reheating Furnaces Publications

The State–of-the-Art Clean Technologies (SOACT) for Steelmaking Handbook

Date: 

Dec
2010

Source: 

Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate

Format: 

PDF

Type: 

Publications

 

The State–of-the-Art Clean Technologies (SOACT) for Steelmaking Handbook is developed as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate program and seeks to catalog the best available technologies and practices to save energy and reduce environmental impacts in the steel industry. Its purpose is to share information about commercialized or emerging technologies and practices that are currently available to increase energy efficiency and environmental performance. 

http://asiapacificpartnership.org/pdf/Projects/Steel/SOACT-Handbook-2nd-Edition....

Page Number: 

117

Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the U.S. Iron and Steel Industry

Date: 

Oct
2010

Source: 

United States Environmental Protection Agency

Format: 

PDF

Type: 

Publications

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) energy guide, Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Saving Opportunities for the U.S. Iron and Steel Industry, discusses energy efficiency practices and technologies that can be implemented in iron and steel manufacturing plants. This guide provides current real world examples of iron and steel plants saving energy and reducing cost and carbon dioxide emissions.

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/industry/Iron_Steel_Guide.pdf?25eb-abc5

Page Number: 

101

Global Warming Countermeasures: Japanese Technologies for Energy Savings / GHG Emissions Reduction

Date: 

2008

Source: 

New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization

Format: 

PDF

Type: 

Publications

This revised 2008 version of the publication from New Energy and Industrial Technology Development of Japan includes information on innovative Japanese technologies for energy efficiency and for the reduction of CO2 emissions.  

http://www.iipinetwork.org/wp-content/Ietd/sites/ietp/files/Japanese%20Technologies%20for%20Ener...

Page Number: 

88

Asia Pacific Partnership Appendix

Date: 

May
2012

Format: 

PDF

Type: 

Publications
http://asiapacificpartnership.org/pdf/Projects/Steel/Appendix1.pdf

Page Number: 

14