Energy recovery in the high temperature furnace using a high-emittance fiber (HEF) unit

Abstract

We have studied the energy recovery effect in high-temperature furnace using a high-emittance fiber (HEF) unit. Previous studies have shown that energy recovery effect occurs as placing the HEF unit perpendicular to the gas flow. However, there are some problems such as clogging and pressure loss. In this study, we examined the energy recovery effect and mechanisms of the effect when HEF unit placed in parallel to the gas stream. In the numerical simulation based on thermo-fluid dynamics, energy recovery effect was also appeared even though the HEF unit placed parallel to the gas flow. The simulation, confirm that most of thermal radiation through the exhausted pipe from the inside of furnace is absorbed by HEF unit and is emitted back to the furnace. This simulation indicated more than 10% input power reduction is expected. We also reveal that amount of energy conservation is depend on the HEF unit’s length, position, and number of plates in a unit. In the experiment using similar furnace to simulation model, we can also obtain the input power reduction by 3.5% at 1073 K.

Keywords

• high-temperature furnace
• thermal radiation
• energy recovery
• computational fluid dynamics
• silicon carbide
• high-emittance fiber (hef)