Furnace design and
operation
Furnace control & safety
Furnace control & safety
Furnace control systems perform two basic
functions
controlling the furnace process
ensuring safe operation
In older furnaces these two functions were
undertaken by two totally different systems
a pneumatic based system for process control
a fail-safe relay and cam timer based system for
safety management (commonly called a burner
management system or BMS)
Furnace control & safety
The advent of Programmable Logic Controllers
(PLCs) in the 1980s encouraged many control
engineers to include both systems in the same
unit losing both the element of redundancy and
the fail-safe nature of the previous systems
PLC systems are generally more reliable than
the old relay based systems, but failures are no
longer restricted to the fail-safe mode; despite
claims by manufacturers that safety is assured
by the watchdog timer
Furnace control & safety
Most of these PLC based systems never
complied with the intent of the various burner
and furnace safety codes and many dangerous
incidents occurred, of which several resulted in
explosions
Consequently codes such as NFPA 86 now
specifically require physical separation of the
control and BMS functions and interposing
safety relays in critical BMS functions, such as
flame failure and fuel safety shut-off valves
Process control
Pneumatic systems are obsolete, and all new furnaces
and retrofits either utilise PLCs for individual furnace
control, or the furnaces are controlled through the
overall plant Distributed Control System (DCS)
The process control system is required to meet one or
more of the following objectives
Maximise furnace production capacity
Ensure satisfactory product quality
Minimise fuel consumption
Minimise emissions
Control furnace warm-up
Enable smooth change-over between different products
Process control
To achieve the objectives one or more of the following
parameters are controlled
Fuel flow rate(s) or heat inputs to the furnace
Combustion air flow rate or air/fuel ratio(s)
Combustion air temperature
Furnace temperature(s)
Furnace exit gas composition
Furnace exit gas temperature
Feed rate of raw material to the furnace
Physical and chemical composition of raw material to the furnace
Product exit temperature
Note that direct measurement of product quality is
extremely rare
Control strategies
Control of product temperature
This strategy is common in furnaces where the product
temperature measurement is practical. The temperature is then
controlled by either increasing or reducing the heat input (firing
rate) or changing the feed rate to the furnace and the residence
time of the product in the furnace
Fuzzy logic and rule based systems
Many furnaces have very long time constants and no single variable
that can be used to control the process. These systems use inputs
from a wide range of measurable furnace parameters to infer the
furnace operating conditions. The control system then adjusts the
furnace inputs to obtain a set of parameters most conducive to
optimum product quality and production rate. These systems
effectively mimic the best human operators but do so with greater
consistency than real operators are able to maintain
Instrumentation
Good instrumentation is an essential component of the
furnace control system
If the furnace performance parameters cannot be
measured reliably then the furnace cannot be effectively
controlled
measurement devices fall into three broad categories
Temperature
Pressure/flow
Composition
Temperature instruments
Furnace temperature can be measured by a
number of contact and non-contact devices,
including:
Thermocouples
Resistance thermometers
Ultrasonic acoustic device
Radiation pyrometers
Thermocouple errors
Where wall is cooler than gas:
Temperature sensor is heated by convection and cooled by radiation to the
walls
If background is hotter than gas:
Radiation Loss Temperature sensor is heated by both convection and radiation
(or gain)
Gas Velocity V m/s
When measuring gas temperatures using thermocouples
or resistance thermometers, radiation to and from the
enclosing sheath can cause major errors in the
measurement, especially at higher temperatures
The errors can be more than 100oC at temperatures
above 1100oC.
Suction pyrometer
True gas temperatures (up to 1450oC) can be measured
by a suction pyrometer
Gas velocities of over 150 m/s do not require correction
Venturi pyrometer
For even higher temperatures, up to 2400 oC the
venturi-pneumatic pyrometer is used
Suction type pyrometers are not suitable for permanent installation and
continuous monitoring owing to difficulty in maintaining the required
aspiration rate and problems with blocking
Infra red measurement
Non-contact temperature
measurement normally uses
infrared radiation emitted
by the object being measured
qradiation =εσAt(T4surface – T4sensor)
Z2
Since the target surface area increases with the distance of the sensor
from the target At/Z2 reduces to a constant and because the temperature
of the sensor is known, the temperature of the surface can be calculated
from qradiation received by the sensor, provided the emissivity is also
known
In some cases two sensors, each responding to a single waveband, are
used to produce a two-colour instrument. The latter reduces the error
Ultra-sonic measurement
Ultrasonic temperature
measurement depends on
the relationship between
the speed of sound and
the density of the medium
it passes through
The speed of sound is measured by
determining the time taken for the
sound wave to cross the duct
For gases density is related to temperature and providing the gas
composition is known the temperature can then be calculated from
the ideal gas laws
Pressure/flow instruments
For liquids and gases most conventional flow
measurement systems are suitable, including pressure
transducers, orifice plates, vortex shedding devices,
corriolis mass flow meters, turbine flow meters, etc
dirty liquids and gases, such coke oven gas, are more difficult to
measure owing to the adverse effect that impurities, such as
suspended particles and tars, have on many flow measuring systems.
For example, pressure differential devices tend to suffer from rapid blocking
of the tapping points whereas devices that are dependent on specific
shapes, such as orifice plates and vortex shedding meters, suffer drift owing
to sensor wear caused by particle attrition or deposit build up owing to
condensation of tar
Ultra-sonic measurement
One technique that has been
successfully applied to measure
the flow of dirty gases is
ultrasonic flow measurement
An ultrasonic pulse is projected
across the duct from left to right
and the transit time measured (t1).
A second pulse is sent from right
to left (t2). Since the gas is moving
up the duct, t2 is longer than t1 and
the velocity is directly related to t2 - t1
and is independent of gas composition, temperature and dust
loading
Solid flow instruments
When the mass flow of bulk solids is measured the
normal method is a belt weigher
manufactures claim an accuracy of better than +1% but this is often
not achievable in practice owing to a number of reasons, including the
tension in the belt which reduces the load on the weighing roller(s), the
inertia of an unevenly distributed load and variations in the speed of
the belt
The most practical way of determining bulk solid flow
rates is the use of calibrated volumetric feeders, such as
a drag chain. These devices can be calibrated by belt
weighers on the bunker feed, loss in weight systems in
the bunker or by filling a truck with a sample over a
measured time period and taking the load to a weigh-
bridge for checking
Belt weigher
Solid flow instruments
For fine particles there are more options for determining
flow rates
loss-in-weight systems
impact weighers
weighing feeders such as the Pfister feeder
Composition instruments
On-line composition measurements are usually made by
„grabbing‟ a representative sample for analysis by
Chromatography (gas or liquid)
Mass spectrometry
Infra-red absorption
Paramagnetic meter
Electrochemical potential
X-ray diffraction
X-ray fluorescence
Differential optical absorption spectroscopy
Calorimeter
Composition instruments
It is not possible or probably even necessary to cover all
these techniques in this lecture
Particular attention will be focused on flue gas analysis
as this is a vital measurement in providing operators
with information to determine the „health‟ of any furnace
Flue gas analysis
Used to control and monitor excess air in combustion
systems
Useful even where air/fuel ratio control is feasible because it is
more accurate and maintains a check on the flow instrument
calibration
When carbon monoxide is also measured, flue gas
analysis provides an indication of combustion efficiency
and for safety systems
Gases such as NOx, SOx and CO2 may also be measured
to confirm that the emissions are within the limits
prescribed by environmental regulations
Flue gas analysis
Technique Sample O2 CO CO2 H2O NOx SOx Hydrocarbons
method
Infra-red In-situ or
cell remote X v v v v v v
Electro- In-situ or 0 – 25% 0 – 100000 NO 0 –5000 ppm 0-5000 ppm 0 55 ppm methane
chemical remote ppm X X NO2 0 – 1000 ppm
cell
Para- Remote 0 – 21%
magnetic X X X X X X
meter
Chemical Remote 0 – 21% in
adsorption ranges v v X v v v
(Drager)
Wet Remote 0 – 21%
chemical v v X X X X
(Orsat)
Wet Remote
chemical X X v X X X X
(Dwyer)
Sampling systems
Flue gas analysers may be mounted directly in the stack
(in-situ) and hence measure a wet gas sample or
mounted remotely and draw a gas sample from the flue
which is filtered and normally dried prior to analysis,
hence producing an analysis of the dry gas components
Sampling systems
Extractive gas sampling analysers In-situ analysers
Draw a sample of gas from the flue gas system These are mounted near to the stack and have
via a small tube. The sample is normally filtered, the sensor either in the stack or are close by
dried and cooled prior to analysis. Because water coupled to a short probe. The gas is sampled hot
vapour is removed, the reading is related to the and conditioning is either not required or limited
dry gas components only to filtration for particlulate removal
Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages
The analysers can be Sampling systems are Non-sampling systems For most gases in-situ
located in a clean costly to install and are easier to install and analysers are less
environment maintain maintaim accurate then remote
units
The analyser has a Sampling system design Skills required to install Apart for oxygen, only
clean sample is a specialist skill not the systems are gases that absorb infra-
normally available on normally available on a red radiation can be
plant typical plant analysed in-situ
Greater accuracy can The instrument supplier Maintenance is normally The wet gas analysis
often be achived with may not have sufficient reduced owing to makes calculation of
remote mounted process knowledge to absence of a complex true excess air levels
analysers design an appropriate sampling system more difficult
sample system
The same sample can Even small leaks in the Errors caused by leaks The analyser is more
be analysed by a sampling system can in the sampling system vulnerable to damage
number of different create large errors in are absent owing to its location
analysers for a wide the readings, especially
range of gas for oxygen
compositions
Extractive sampling
Extractive sampling
probes
Typical water cooled sample probe
Extractive sampling
probes
Typical water cooled sample probe with auto-purge
Extractive sampling
probes
Dilution extraction sample probe
In-situ instruments
Obscuration back-scattering
Cross-duct dust monitoring
In-situ instruments
High temperature (700 - 1700oC) zirconia probe for oxygen
In-situ instruments
In-situ infra-red gas analyser
Furnace safety
There are a number of potential sources of flammable mixtures in a
furnace or process plant. These include:-
Oil or gas leaking into the combustion chamber through the burner as a
result of leaking fuel shut off valves
Deposits of coal or oil from previous firing periods, not properly purged
from the system
Operation of the plant with insufficient combustion air (sub-
stoichiometric operation), resulting in CO and unburnt fuel in the
downstream ducting and dust collector
Quenching of the flame by cold dust entering the furnace. Gas flames
are particularly vulnerable to this problem, owing to the high ignition
temperature of natural gas;
Fuel entering the furnace as a result of repeated, unsuccessful ignition
attempts. This is a significant risk with oil firing, particularly where the
oil is not sufficiently hot to ignite easily
Start up
For most furnaces the greatest risk
occurs during start-up
air purge should be long enough to
ensure a minimum of 4-5 volume
changes of the whole system
danger arises on plants where
manual start-up is used or where
the operators and/or maintenance
staff can access and adjust the BMS
timers
there is generally no risk if the
ignition attempts are only for the
pilot burner with the main fuel
valves closed and purge airflow is
maintained
Fault tree analysis
Fault tree analysis is
used to determine the
safety integrity level
(SIL)
In this example the
dangerous condition
arises from the low
airflow and failure of
the trips to detect
this. However, the
explosion is initiated
by the correct
operation of the
“furnace pressure
high” trip
Flame scanners
Three types of detector in common used
Ultra-Violet Radiation Detection
UV radiation is produced by the ionization within the root of the flame and is
detected by a UV sensitive vacuum tube which typically responds to
radiation of wavelengths 150-250nm. The UV signal tends to be very weak
and has to be focused onto the detection tube by a quartz lens. Not self
checking
Infra-Red Radiation Detection
Infra-red radiation (IR) is also emitted from flames. Since infra-red radiation
is also emitted by hot refractory, commercial flame detectors are made fail-
safe by detecting the characteristic flicker frequency of the flame
Flame Ionisation Detection
When an AC voltage is applied across a flame by two electrodes, a very
small current is transmitted owing to its ionized state. Only suitable for
small gas burners, such as domestic and commercial heating. However, it is
widely used on industrial pilot burners.
