Regarding the issue of lighting the furnace
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Our facility has two types of furnaces: one is used for heating raw materials, and the other is a combustion furnace for the sulfur processing unit. I would like to ask two questions: 1. The furnaces used for heating raw materials are all ignited manually using ignition guns, while the combustion furnaces are equipped with automatic ignition systems. Why isn’t every furnace designed to use either manual or automatic ignition? 2. The fuel section of the furnace is designed with two circuits: one is the fuel pipeline and the other is the pilot light line. How are these two circuits controlled during ignition? And how is the air volume controlled during ignition? I’m not a process engineer; I’d like some advice.
This post was last edited by ylb913 on 2015-7-23 at 19:47. The sulfur furnace is a positive-pressure furnace, so automatic ignition is required； The heating furnace is a negative-pressure furnace. First, light the eternal flame, and use it to light the main burner. When lighting a sulfur furnace, we usually use a low wind volume; this volume is generally proportional to the processing capacity of the unit. For example, for 20,000 tons of sulfur, the wind volume is around 400–500 standard cubic feet per hour, while for 40,000 tons it ranges from 800–1000 standard cubic feet per hour. At such wind volumes, the furnace operates at near atmospheric pressure, either with slight negative or positive pressure (this is the case when we use manual ignition methods). Once it’s lit, there is rapid increase in air flow and gas supply; for our 20,000-ton sulfur plant, we usually set the flow rate at 2,000–4,000 standard cubic feet per hour, adjusting the gas amount accordingly. Keep the furnace temperature at around 150 degrees, then follow the heating curve. Before turning on the sulfur firing furnace, we start the fan in advance and use air at around 80 degrees to blow it for a few hours first. The gas and air volume for the eternal flame burners are very low; one of our eternal flame burners uses 1 cubic meter of gas and 10 cubic meters of air.
Is it a positive-pressure furnace or a negative-pressure furnace? Is this determined by the physical properties of the furnace or by the processing procedures? What is the difference?