Premier Refractories International Limited
Design, supply, installation and commissioning of combustion and control system.
We were contracted to design, supply and commission a new combustion and control system for an open furnace, replacing an existing and worn out closed top furnace, with an aim of greater production capacity.
The system was to incorporate one set, or “fire”, of furnace hardware that included one exhaust rack, one start-up rack, three high heat racks, two cooling racks, a set of ducting to carry the off-gases to the environmental clean-up system (an RTO), a multi-fuel (Natural Gas and LPG) distribution network and control system that integrated the RTO and new furnace controls, using a wired network distributed control system on each rack, and wireless connection to a mobile HMI.
The new equipment was required to be simple in operation where the position of the various racks was automatically verified and operating requirements uploaded to the rack (for example a temperature ramp, where local control was exercised even in the event of a network failure).
In addition close control of furnace temperature was required, particularly in the important ramp to temperature and through the pitch evolution and burn part of the cycle.