FURNACE

Fundamentals &
Operations

Furnace typical Cross Section Diagram

A process heater is a direct-fired heat exchanger that uses the hot
gases of combustion to raise the temperature of a feed flowing
through coils of tubes aligned throughout the heater.
1) Radiant Section:
The radiant tubes are located along the walls in the radiant section
and receive radiant heat direct from the burners. The radiant zone
is the costliest part of the heater and most of the heat should be
gained there. This is also called the firebox.
2) Convection Section:
Rather than hit the radiant section directly, the feed charge enters
the coil inlet in the convection section where it is preheated before
transferring to the radiant tubes. This section removes heat from
the flue gas to preheat the contents of the tubes and significantly
reduces the temperature of the flue gas exiting the stack. Too
much heat picked up in the convection section is a sign of too
much draft. Tube temperature is measured in both convection and
radiant sections.
3) Shield Section:
Just below the convection section is the shield (or shocktube)
section, containing rows of tubing which shield the convection
tubes from the direct radiant heat. The bridgewall temperature is
of the flue gas after the radiant heat is removed by the radiant
tubes and before it hits the convection section. Excess draft, either
positive pressure or negative pressure, can lead to serious
problems. This is also the ideal place for flue gas oxygen and ppm
combustibles measurement.

Furnace Typical Burner Configuration Diagram

The burners on a process heater premix the fuel with the
primary air which is aspirated into the burner by the fuel
gas flow.

Primary air flow should be maximized without lifting

the flame off the burner. The pressure of the fuel gas
supply is important since low gas pressure degrades
performance.
Secondary air is introduced and adjusted with the
registers. Too much or too little secondary air gives
poor combustion.
Incomplete combustion occurs when not enough
combustion air is supplied to burn all the fuel completely.
% of excess air = 100 *% of O2 /(21-% of O2).
The large amount of CO and H2 formed as a result of the
incomplete combustion makes the burner extremely
inefficient.
Source: Process-Heaters-Furnaces-and-Fired-Heaters by ametekpi

Furnace typical Heat Distribution Diagram

Furnace
efficiencies
achievable
depend on service, furnace heat duty,
process temperatures and quality of
fuel. Options such as cast tube and
glass tube air pre heaters, steam
generation and superheat, etc., shall
be evaluated.
Typical Furnace efficiency shall be:
92% on fuel gas fired heaters
90% on combination firing heaters
(with fuel oil or fuel gas or dual
fuel mode)

Source: red-bag.com/jcms/design-guides, UOP furnace fundamentals

Refer: http://www.em-ea.org/Guide%20Books/book-4/4.2%20Furnace.pdf for furnace direct and indirect efficiency
calculations

Furnace typical Draft Schematic

Natural Draft Furnace:
It is the draft produced by a chimney alone.
Concept: It is caused by the difference in weight
between the column of hot gas inside the chimney
and column of outside air of the same height and
cross section. Being much lighter than outside air,
chimney flue gas tends to rise, and the heavier
outside air flows in through the ash pit to take its
place.
Control: It is usually controlled by hand-operated
dampers in the chimney and breeching connecting
the boiler to the chimney.
Here no fans or blowers are used. The products of
combustion are discharged at such a height that it
will not be a nuisance to the surrounding
community.
Typical draft values at different location of such
furnace is shown in side drawing
Source: Fuels and Combustion, Chapter-2, www.pcra.org

Balanced Draft Furnace:

Forced-draft (F-D) fan (blower) pushes air into the furnace
Induced-draft (I-D) fan draws gases into the chimney
thereby providing draft to remove the gases from the boiler.
Here the pressure is maintained between 0.05 to 0.10 in. of
an induced water gauge below atmospheric pressure in the
case of boilers and slightly positive for reheating and heat
treatment furnaces.
Advantage:
1) Optimal Operation Control
2) Direct APH possible
3) Energy Savings

Forced Draft: The Forced draft system uses a fan to deliver

the air to the furnace, forcing combustion products to flow
through the unit and up the stack.
Apart from these there is Induced Draft Furnace, enough
draft for flow into the furnace, causing the products of
combustion to discharge to atmosphere. Here the furnace is
kept at a slight negative pressure below the atmospheric
pressure so that combustion air flows through the system
Source:
www.cpec.nus.edu.sg/myweb/newsletter/news11/FWE.html

Optimizing Heater Operations

Purpose of the stack damper: Two objectives must be satisfied if an optimum operation is
to be approached:
a) Excess air in the flue gas to the convective section should be minimized
b) There should be a very small negative pressure at the convective section inlet.
Caution: The stack damper and the secondary air registers must be used as a team. If the
stack damper is mostly closed and the secondary air dampers are mostly opened, a positive
pressure can develop at the convective section inlet.
After-burn effect: Mixed with fresh air flowing through convective section leaks, the flue
gases may reignite. This phenomenon, called afterburn, results in damage to the convective
section finned tubing. Afterburn is promoted by insufficient oxygen in the firebox, excessive
draft, and leaks in the convective section exterior walls.

Draft Measurement: Achieve the pressure below the first row of convective tubes to
maintain a small negative pressure (0.05 in. to 0.10 in. of draft) without changing the oxygen
level in the combustion zone.
This can be done by checking the pressure drop across the stack damper, checking the
pressure drop across the burner air registers, adjusting the stack damper (closing if the draft
is too large), and making adjustment to the pressure drop across the burner air registers.

Flame Appearance: A combustion zone that looks bright and clear has excess oxygen.
Long, licking, yellow, smoky flames and a hazy firebox indicate low oxygen.

HEATER HOT SPOT PROBLEM

Spotting Hot Tubes: Heater tubes will glow different colors, a freshly cleaned heater fired at a
moderate rate will have black-appearing tubes. In Contrast, the hangers (i.e., the brackets
supporting the tubes) will be glowing red. Typically, the hot spot looks like a silver streak or a
silver dollar.
Cause: A hot spot on a tube is usually caused by a partial loss of flow through one pass of a
multi-pass heater. The layer of coke insulates the tube wall from the cooling effects of the
process fluid. Flame impingement is another cause of hot spots.
Effect: A tube with a silver streak will begin to bulge at its hottest point. Eventually, the tube
wall will thin out over the bulge and split open. Process-side hydrocarbons will spill into the
firebox and ignite.
Solutions:
a) Addressing Flame impingement: Increasing combustion air, especially premix air, will
shorten flames. Keeping burners clean is an easy way to help control flame impingement.
Almost all burners can be cleaned without shutting down the heater.
b) Cooling Overheated Tubes: To cool off small hot spots, following actions may be initiated:
1) Reducing burner firing in the dangerous area is also helpful.
2) Maximizing the flow of fluid through the coked-up tubes is usually the best way to prevent
failure from overheating.

Low Nox type burner Schematic

High Nox Burner Reasons:
1) High excess air
2) Higher than normal hydrogen contents in fuel
3) Fuel composition change
4) Non NOx burner

Reference: Refinery heaters by M/s Linde

5) High Nitrogen in fuel

6) High air preheat
7) High firebox temperature

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Sl No.

Problem

Solution

Flame lift off

Incorrect air /fuel ratio

Pulsating flame

Low excess air

Poor or low draft

Flame interaction

Poor setting of air/fuel ratio

Burner pitching too close

Flashback

High excess air

Higher than normal hydrogen contents in fuel
Low fuel gas pressure

Flame length high

Low excess air

Excessive firing
Burner tip worn out
Poor air-fuel mixing

Positive pressure
at arch

Excessive firing
Stack or ID fan inlet damper not open
Excessive fouling of convection section

Damaged tube
refractory

Excessive firing
Flame impingement
Heat flux shift

Excessive noise

Unstable flame
Poor burner design

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Sl No.

Problem

Solution

Burner flames go
out

Too much draft

Gas mixing very lean
High excess air

High temperature
in convection box

Heat flux shift

10

Tube coking

Flame impingement
Low pass flow

11

Positive pressure
inside the fire box

Excessive firing
Stack or ID fan inlet damper not open
Excessive fouling of convection section

12

High fuel gas

pressure

Excessive firing
Plugged burner tip
Fuel composition charge
Not enough burners operating

13

Afterburn

Fuel composition change

Incorrect oxygen measurement
Excessive heater leaks
Poor burner condition/adjustment

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Sl No.

Problem

Solution

14

High combustibles/
emissions

Low excess air

Fuel composition change
Incorrect oxygen measurement
Poor burner condition/adjustment

15

Tube bulging

Excessive firing
Flame impingement

16

High stack or flue gas

temperature

Excessive firing
High excess air
Excessive fouling of convection section
Convection section tube fins burn out

17

Corrosion of
convection tube

Higher than normal sulfur contents in fuel gas

TMT below acid dew point temperature

18

Variation in COT

Unequal heater pass flow distribution

Uneven firing

19

High pressure drop of

radiant tubes

Coke buildup
High pressure flow rate
High pressure of vaporization

20

Heater vibration

Fuel composition charge

Unstable flame
Poor burner design

Best Practices
1) Leak identification (during a turnaround): Close the stack damper slightly and ignite
colored smoke bombs in the firebox. If a forced draft fan is available, turn it on. The colored
smoke will escape from the leaks.
2) Optimize use of firebox thermocouples: An experienced operator can balance furnace
firing and hence minimize excess air by visually observing the flame pattern. A substitute for
an experienced eye is a large number of firebox temperature indicators (TIs). The TI tells an
operator how hot it is in a particular part of the firebox. An optimized firebox should look hazy
because the fuel is groping for the last part of oxygen in the firebox. A reasonable number of
TIs for a large firebox (100 MM BTU/hr heat release) is eight.
3) Installation of Combustion air preheater: By installing a combustion air preheater, using
the hot flue gas and an additional FD fan in one of the VDU which used natural draft and
had no heat recovery, a refinery in UK by reducing flue gas temperature to 275C achieved
energy cost saving of Rs. 95 lakhs per year with a payback period of 2 years.
4) Recover Heat From Flue Gas: Heat from flue gases can be used to preheat
boiler feed water in an economizer. While this measure is fairly common in large boilers,
there is often still potential for more heat recovery. The limiting factor for flue gas heat
recovery is the economizer wall temperature that should not drop below the dew point of
acids in the flue gas. One percent of fuel use is saved for every 25C reduction in exhaust
gas temperature. (Ganapathy, 1994). Since exhaust gas temperatures are already quite low,
limiting savings to 1% across all boilers, with a payback of 2 years (IAC, 1999).

Furnace Best Practices

5) Clean the outside of the radiant tubes on-stream. This is best done by blasting the
tubes with nutshells or with a thin jet of high-pressure water. The trick is to hit the
tubes and not the easily damaged refractory.
6) Water wash on-stream the convective tube banks with a fire hose. Soot blowers also
successfully combat convective section deposits.
7) Conduct an infrared thermograph survey of the heater while on-stream. This will
locate areas of bad refractor that can be repaired during the next unit turnaround.
8) Plug all oil leakage as leakage of one drop of oil per second amounts to a loss of
over 2000 liters/year.
9) Minimize the use of atomizing steam in oil-fired heaters. Typically, 1lb of steam is
used for each gallon of fuel oil.
10)Filter oil in stages. Impurities in oil affect combustion.
11) Pre-heat oil. For proper combustion, oil should be at right viscosity at the burner tip.
Provide adequate Pre-heat capacity.

Burner Check-list

Attributes
1.0 PILOT GUN
Nozzle cleaned (at the bottom of the gun)
Nozzle dia= 1.60 mm
Air Register (circular) operable
Pipe cleaned
Tip Cleaned & OK
2.0 OIL GUN
Tip cleaned
Tip dia =2.0 mm
Atomiser cleaned
Oil pipe cleaned
Steam pipe cleaned
Tip fitted properly (see sketch below)

B NO-1

B NO-2

B NO-3

B NO-4

Burner Check-list

Attributes
3.0 GAS GUN
Tip cleaned
Tip dia =2.55 mm
All 4 gas pipes equal length
No of holes in gas tip
Gas tip has a side hole (dia-2.55 mm)
Tip aligned properly (see sketch below)
Gas pipe cleaned
4.0 BURNER BLOCK
Refractory OK
Primary air net OK & Cleaned
Casing OK
Front plate refractory OK
Properly fitted with front plate

B NO-1

B NO-2

B NO-3

B NO-4

Burner Check-list

Attributes
5.0 BURNER ASSEMBLY
Gas gun tip 10 mm above the burner block
Gas tip orientation as per the drawing
below
Oil tip 30 mm above bottom of burner block
Oil tip hole orientation as per drawing
below
Oil tip centering done properly
Pilot gas tip in line with the burner block
top
Atomising Stm & Oil hose connected
properly
New gaskets provided in all flanges
Refractory of muffle block OK
Damper handle operable

B NO-1

B NO-2

B NO-3

B NO-4

Furnace Case Studies

Case1: Flames were observed at the exit of the heater stack in one unit
Problem details: The process-side temperature reset the fuel gas flow via
closed-loop control. Once, a sudden increase in the process fluid flow
automatically increased the fuel gas flow. Since the heater had just been trimmed
to use almost no excess air, the firebox went air deficient.
As the percentage of combustibles in the flue gas increased, the firebox cooled
off and the process-side temperature dropped. This called for even more fuel gas,
which lowered the temperature further. Eventually, flames were observed at the
exit of the heater stack.
Check: Be vigilant when raising the furnace throughput, adjust air before raising
fuel
Low combustion air: A gas fired heater firebox will have a hazy appearance
when short of air. A heater making a regular thumping sound is also likely to be
air deficient. Sometimes an increase in fuel gas flow will result in a decrease in
process-side temperature. This is a sign that the firebox does not have enough air.

Furnace Case Studies

Case2: Heater Huffing and Puffing : A refiner recently called about a problem
with an FCCU CO boiler that was making a huffing sound. Moreover, the problem
was becoming gradually worse, with the convective tube banks sheet metal sides
moving an inch or more.
The erratic pressure in the boiler was caused by lack of adequate combustion air
in the firebox. They checked 5% O2 in the stack. On further checking, the refinery
sealed off the leaks in the convective section skin. The O2 in the stack dropped;
steam production went up; and the huffing and puffing stopped.
Case3: Coke Deposition Problem: After a flow upset in a furnace the

pressure drop across furnace has increased?

Problem details: The firebox temperature had been running at 1700 F, it is
probable that the tubes will heat up to about 1500 F shortly after the flow of
process fluid is lost. The unit operators then rapidly restored the flow through the
tube, the initial flow will be exposed to the 1500 F tube walls. Thus some oil has
formed coke that then deposits on the tube wall.
Solution: To prevent coke buildup in this manner, the tubes should be cooled to
about 800 F-900 F before flow is reintroduced.

HEATER LIMITATION CASE STUDIES

Case1: Heat-release limited: In one refinery unit, the hydrogen content of refinery
fuel was much higher than the furnace design specified. Since the volumetric
heating valve of hydrogen is comparatively low, the furnace was heat-release
limited. Enlarging the burner tip holes rectified the problem.
Case2: Draft-Limited: When short of air, a heater is draft-limited. With both the
stack damper and the secondary air registers fully open, not enough air can be
drawn into the firebox to complete combustion.
Reducing air in-leakage in the convective section may correct this problem.
Perhaps the convective tube bank is partially plugged on the flue-gas side. A
pressure survey with a draft gauge is the first step in identifying the restriction that
limits draft. Occasionally, the size of the secondary air registers can be increased.
Case3: Heat-Absorption Limited: Overheating tubes is a commonly encountered
limit. One way to increase duty without overheating tubes is to add convective
tubes. This improves furnace efficiency and hence reduces firing. Of course, this
also reduces draft. Another way is to replace raw-gas burners with premix burners.
Raw-gas burners rely exclusively on secondary air and therefore produce a less
dense flame than premix burners. A denser flame makes better use of the available
firebox volume. Raw-gas burners are used because they are quieter and not
subject to flashback when burning hydrogen-rich steams, Third, replace large oilfired wall burners with smaller gas-fired floor burners.

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Low excess
air

Inadequate
primary air

Wrong
burner
selection

Flame Impingement
After burn

Too much
draft
Fuel
composition
change

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Lower flue gas temperature than normal

Lower air inlet temperature than design
Higher than normal sulfur contents in fuel gas
Excessive
corrosion of
APH

Air leak in inside air pre-heater

Air pre-heater not insulated properly
TMT below acid dew point temperature

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Burner tip plugging

Heavies (C4, C5, etc) in fuel gas
Carry over of amine solvent in fuel gas
Particulate matters in fuel gas

Burner Tip
Plugging
Problem

High tip temperature

No fuel gas KO drum of demister pad
damaged
Fuel gas line not insulated and/or traced
Burner tip drill size too small

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Excessive firing

Flame impingement

Heat flux shift

Coke build up

Low pass flow

Uneven firing

High
TMT of
radiant
tubes

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Incorrect
oxygen
measurement

Stack damper
not set
correctly

Excessive
heater leaks

Excess %
Oxygen

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Low heater
efficiency
Poor
performance of
air preheater

High radiation
losses

High stack
temperature

Fouling
Convection Zone

Poor air-fuel
mixing

High excess air

Troubleshooting: Erratic flames

Low excess air

Poor or low
draft

Erratic flames

Plugged burner
tip

Damaged burner
tile

Incorrect
orientation of
burner tip

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Incorrect
oxygen
measurement

Poor setting of
air/fuel ratio

Inadequate air
supply

After burn

High
CO in
Flue
Gas

Flame
impingement

Fuel pressure
high

Typical fired heater problems and root causes

Lower flue gas temperature than normal

Lower air inlet temperature than design
Higher than normal sulfur contents in fuel gas
Excessive
corrosion of
APH

Air leak in inside air pre-heater

Air pre-heater not insulated properly
TMT below acid dew point temperature

FURNACE
Operations
Excellence

Best Operational Practices

Sl No

Item

Operation Philosophy

Combustion
Air / Flue gas
duct System

a)
b)
c)
d)

Burner
System

a)
b)
c)
d)

ID /FD flow to be accurate. Have periodic checking.

ID/FD Dampers, IGV cross checking and regular maintenance.
Checking for any APH leak and rectification plan.
Pressure survey of Waste heat recovery section for damage
bellows, air ingress in convection zone, and identification of
abnormalities to be carried our periodically
e) Scheduled checking of convection zone and online cleaning
f) Damper must be in closed condition specially in Balanced draft
g) Acidic corrosion must be avoided near convection zone /APH
h) High stack temperatures can be addressed by checking the soot
blower operations, APH performance and its bypass (must be in
closed condition)
i) APH water wash must be done to reduce high stack temperatures
Burner cleaning schedule to be adhered
Old nonperforming burners to be replaced
Combustion air pressure must be as per burner tip design
Maximize primary air (on the premix burners) and minimize
secondary air. However, using too much primary air will lift the
flame off the burner tip.
e) Shut down burners when the heater is firing at reduced rates.
Burners work more efficiently when operating close to their design
capacity. Dont forget to shut the air registers on the idle burners.
f) Keep burners clean. Plugged burner tips increase oxygen
requirements;

Best Operational Practices

Sl No Item

Operation Philosophy

Process a) Pass flows must be equally distributed through control system or

configuration.
flow
section b) Heater must not be operated below turn down ratio
c) Increase/ decrease of Furnace coil temp. Must be done gradually to
avoid thermal shock.

Excess
Air
control

a)
b)
c)
d)

Oxygen analyzer must be in healthy condition

Regularly ORSAT analysis required for cross check in excess
Air must be varied with varying furnace load
Portable Oxygen analyser to be utilised for evaluating online analysers
performance

e) Minimize poor lateral air distribution in the firebox by adjusting air

registers on individual burners. Having a low airflow in one part of
the heater will lead to higher overall oxygen requirements.
f) Close openings to pilot lights, sight-ports, and other holes around
burners.
5

Gas
Firing

a) Fuel gas must be free from water / condensate of any type.

b) Control the Fuel gas pressure as per specified for the burner:
High Pressure: flame impingement, high arch temp. etc problems
Low pressure: improper burning, back firing, burner putting off etc.
High Fuel gas pressure problem can be addressed by consuming
excess FG and thus controlling FG induced flaring as well.
c) During start up, ensure first box purging by steam to remove trapped
fuel inside or keep pilot burners ON before lighting up main burners

Best Operational Practices

Sl

Item

Operation Philosophy

Oil Firing

a) Atomizing steam pressure and temperature must be optimal (near

to design values) and should be always condensate free, check for
loss of insulation on the atomizing steam lines.
b) Delta pressure between atomizing steam & Oil fuel must be
optimal to design values
c) Oil fuel quality to be maintained i.e. viscosity, temp. & flash pt.
d) Oil dripping from burners must be addressed. (Check atomising
steam/air sufficiency, steam temp., oil flow and pressure etc)

Furnace
preservation

Many furnaces today are in idle / standby condition in IOCL. To keep

some furnaces moisture free, following action may be taken:
a) By putting instrument air/nitrogen inside the furnace shell (if
available in abundance)
b) By keeping pilot burners ON at minimum box temperatures
c) For Furnaces i.e. austenitic steel tubes, proper passivation to be
done for tubes externally to avoid acidic attack before shutdown.

Shutdown
opportunity

a) Conduct an infrared thermograph survey of the heater while onstream. This will locate areas of bad refractor that can be repaired.
b) Water wash on-stream the convective tube banks if online cleaning
facility is not available.
c) Clean the outside of the radiant tubes.
d) Check for plugged burner tips or enlarged holes in the burner tips.
e) Check the furnace instrumentation i.e. pass flows,
box/skin/arch/stack temperatures, analyzers, dampers, control
systems etc.

Best Operational Practices Flame Pattern

a) The heater process outlet temperature begins to increase as
the excess air is reduced as more heat is given to the process
fluid and less heat goes up the stack.
b) The heater process outlet temperature declines as airflow is
reduced past the point of absolute combustion.
The products of incomplete combustion usually results in after-burn
in the convective section or stack and can even lead to explosive
detonations.
a) Incorrect air /fuel ratio : In case of long, licking, yellow, smoky
flames and a hazy firebox increase oxygen inside.

a) Fireflies/sparkles in furnace can be addressed by proper

atomising steam pressure/flow & steam/oil temperature and
design tip positioning
b) Address poor draft and reduce fuel pressure
a) A combustion zone that looks bright and clear has excess
oxygen.

b) To avoid flash backs in burners, raise fuel pressure, clean

burner tip or check the alignment
c) Clean slight bluish/yellowish flame is desirable

Thumb rules for Energy Optimization

Sl No Description
1

a) For every reduction in 22 Deg C in flue gas temp./ stack temp. thru passing
Economizer or pre-heater 1% saving in fuel consumption/ efficiency is there.
b) For every 6 Deg C rise in feed water temp. or 20 Deg C rise in combustion air temp.
through an air pre-heater, there is 1% saving in fuel / efficiency

If flue gas temp. rise by 30 Deg C than normal, it is time to remove the soot deposit. 3 mm
of soot deposit on heat transfer surface, there is increase of fuel consumption about 2.5%.

A typical air pre-heater will reduce the fuel required to liberate heat by 10%.

Plug all oil leakage as leakage of one drop of oil per second ~ loss of over 2000 liters/year.

Maximum efficiency of a boiler doesnt occur at full load, but at about two-third of the load.

Hot Insulation heat loss estimate

Diff. in Temp.
between Ambient
& Surface Dec C

Heat Loss in
Kcal/Sq.m/Hr

50

500

100

1350

200

3800

400

13650

@ Ambient : 35 Deg C
@ Emissivity : 0.8

Refer: www.PCRA.org; www.energymanagertraining.com; process equipment by N Lieberman

Draft Schematics in a Heater

Draft Schematic for Balanced draft

Draft Schematic for Natural draft

Furnace Efficiency Calculations

The efficiency of furnace can be judged by measuring the amount of fuel needed per unit weight
of material by as given below:
1) Direct method
Thermal efficiency = Heat in the stock (Q) / Heat in the fuel consumed (Heat Input)*100
The quantity of heat to be imparted (Q) to the stock can be found from
Q=m x Cp (t1t2)
Where
Q=Quantity of heat of stock in Kcal
m=Mass of the stock in Kg/hr
Cp=Mean specific heat of stock in kCal/kgoC
t1= Final temperature of stock desired, oC
t2=Initial temperature of the stock before it enters oC
Whereas Heat Input = Fuel consumed (Kg/hr) * Fuel Calorific value (Kcal/Kg)
2) Indirect Method: Furnace efficiency is calculated after subtracting sensible heat loss in flue
gas, loss due to moisture in flue gas, heat loss due to openings in furnace, heat loss through
furnace skin and other unaccounted losses

Furnace Efficiency Calculations

Furnace Efficiency Calculations

Fuel & Money savings potential

Sample Calculations:
1) Furnace efficiency effect calculations:
100 mmKcal/hr absorbed duty furnace with Design efficiency () 91.0%;
a)
b)

Thus fired duty = 100 mmKcal/hr / 0.91 = 109.9 mmKcal/hr

@2% drop in () efficiency ~ 89%, Actual fired duty = 100 / 0.89 = 112.3 mmKcal/hr

Saving potential = 112.3 109.9 = 2.47 mmKcal/hr * 10^6/10^4/10^3*8000

Saving = 1975 SRFT/yr @ 10000 Kcal/Kg Fuel
= Rs 7.9 Crore/yr @40000 Rs / SRFT savings are there.

2) Stack Temperature effect calculations:

For stack temp. actual 182 Deg C against design 160 Deg C
Saving potential = (182-160)/22= 1% Efficiency saving = 100 mmkcal/hr / (0.91-0.01) =
= 111.1 mmkcal/hr
Saving = 976 SRFT/yr = Rs 3.9 Crore/yr
(1% raise for every 22 Deg reduction in stack temperature)