Worldwide manufacturers and processors have a strong interest in higher capacity more energy efficient natural gas-fired retort furnaces, which find many important applications in major industries. Procedyne Corp., with partial funding from industrial and governmental agencies, has developed a new high capacity energy efficient heating mantle termed “Porous Wall Radiation” (PWR) Mantle in which the combustion gas flows through a porous wall surrounding the retort in a radial flow direction away from the retort wall transferring heat by conduction and convection to the porous wall, which then radiates heat to the retort. Theoretical studies verified by bench-scale testing demonstrated that operating in the temperature range of 1600 to 2350°F, this design transfers heat to the retort at rates 1.8 to 2.4 times that in conventional heating mantles. Procedyne has recently engineered and constructed an industrial size furnace with the PWR Mantle. In this paper, the furnace design and the supporting experimental results are presented.
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