Furnaces for melting particulate materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2026002735-A1
Application number	US-202519247371-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 24, 2025
Priority date	Jun 26, 2024
Publication date	Jan 1, 2026
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present application discloses a furnace for melting particulate materials configured with a furnace chamber, a feed hopper, a protrusion and at least one burner. The particulate materials fall along the protrusion into a melting tank, and flue gas generated by the burner flows upwardly, thereby preheating the particulate materials. The process of utilizing the flue gas to preheat the particulate materials begins with the flue gas in the high temperature section. The efficiency of preheating the particulate materials with the flue gas greatly improves and the heat loss reduces.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A furnace for melting particulate materials, comprising:
a furnace chamber, the furnace chamber being provided with a side wall, a bottom wall, and a melting tank having a melt surface; a feed hopper configured to supply particulate materials into the furnace chamber, said feed hopper being provided with a feed opening; a protrusion, the protrusion being positioned between the feed opening and the melting tank, and the protrusion being projected upwardly from the bottom wall of the furnace chamber, whereby the particulate materials descend along a stacking surface into the melting tank; and at least one burner, configured to heat the particulate materials in the melting tank to form a melt and generate flue gas.

2 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said flue gas flows upwards along the stacking surface, thereby preheating the particulate materials.

3 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a dead zone and a flow layer are formed sequentially from the stacking surface to a side wall of the furnace chamber.

4 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the protrusion is shaped as a multi-gradation stepped configuration, a step-like, a rectangular block, a trapezoidal block or a conical block.

5 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the top of the protrusion is located below the feed opening and above the melt surface.

6 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the protrusion and a melt outlet of the furnace are located on opposite sides of the furnace respectively.

7 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least one burner is adjacent to the bottom wall of said furnace chamber.

8 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one burner is a submerged burner.

9 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the melting tank is a rectangular shaped space enclosed by a bottom wall and four side walls.

10 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the height of the protrusion in the vertical direction is from 1.3 to 6 times the set value of the melt depth in the melting tank.

11 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the outermost point of the protrusion projected onto the horizontal plane downstream along the melt flow direction is marked as X, wherein a horizontal distance L1 between X and the central axis of the nearest burner is greater than 200 mm.

12 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, downstream along the melt flow direction, the line connecting the endpoint M of the apical surface of the protrusion and X forms an angle (F) with the horizontal plane with a degree greater than the static angle of repose of the particulate materials.

13 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, downstream along the melt flow direction, the line connecting the endpoint M of the apical surface of the protrusion and X forms an angle (F) with the horizontal plane in the range of degrees from 25° to 80°.

14 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein, downstream along the melt flow direction, the outermost point of the feed opening projected onto the horizontal plane is marked as Y, then the horizontal distance L2 between X and Y ranges from 200 mm to 1000 mm.

15 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the melting tank is an annular space enclosed by the bottom wall of the furnace and the surrounding side walls of the furnace, wherein a protrusion is positioned within the furnace.

16 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the protrusion is arranged circumferentially, and together with the bottom wall of the furnace and the side walls of the furnace, define a melting tank.

17 . The furnace for melting particulate materials as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the feed openings are arranged circumferentially at equal intervals.

18 . A method of melting particulate materials comprising melting the particulate materials in a melting tank of the furnace according to claim 1 .

19 . A method of preheating particulate materials using flue gas generated from a furnace, comprising:
providing a furnace, wherein the furnace comprises a furnace chamber in which particulate materials are supplied into the furnace chamber via a feed hopper; one or more burners disposed on the furnace being configured to combust the fuel and oxidant, thereby generating flue gas; providing a protrusion, wherein said protrusion being positioned between the feed opening and the melting tank, the protrusion defining a stacking surface along which the particulate materials enter the melting tank in the direction opposite to the flue gas flow, whereby the particulate materials are preheated and at least partially melted, falling onto the melt surface.

Assignees

• Air Liquide

Inventors

• Yan Tao
• Tsiava Remi
• Zhang Ting
• Gu yuquan

Classifications

• F27D2099/0036

  immersed in the charge · CPC title

• F27D99/0033

  using burners · CPC title

• F27B3/26

  Arrangements of heat-exchange apparatus · CPC title

• C03B5/04

  in tank furnaces {(C03B5/02 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• F27D17/18

  for preheating solid materials · CPC title