Process Heater

Goal/Purpose

This 3 million Btu/h, pilot-scale facility is designed to simulate a directly fired process heater. It can also simulate a brick kiln. Front and right views are shown in the shematic below. The process heater is designed to accept wall- or floor-mounted burners so that a variety of firing configurations, and interactions between burners, can be studied. Banks of fluid- or air-cooled tubes are hung from the roof of the furnace to simulate a chemical process heater. A variety of NOx, heat flux, and tube-wall temperature measurements are possible.

Physical Description

The reactor, without the gas train, exhaust duct, and electrical system, is 12 ft tall. The front width is 5 ft, and the side length is 7 ft. The inner cavity is 3 ft wide, 5 ft long, and 10 ft tall. The facility is insulated with a 5 in layer of fiberboard, next to the steel shell, and a 4 in layer of castable refractory. The latter is capable of sustaining a hot face temperature of 3100°F.

The exhaust gases leaving the heater are continuously monitored for NO_x, O₂, CO, and CO₂. The exhaust stream can also be continuously analyzed for hydrocarbons using a total hydrocarbon analyzer and a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer. The later permits the identification of the major vapor-phase species. A Fourier transform infrared spectrometer is also available for measuring NO_x and NO_x precursors.