Method For Lighting The Burners In A Reforming Furnace

Abstract

A method for igniting the burners of a hydrocarbon steam reforming furnace is provided.

1 - 3 . (canceled) 
     
     
         4 . A method for igniting the burners of a hydrocarbon steam reforming furnace at the startup thereof, said furnace comprising:
 a combustion chamber having at least two vertical walls made of refractory material facing each other;   at least vertically aligned reforming tubes at mid-distance between the two facing vertical refractory walls; and   burners placed on each of the two facing vertical refractory walls, said burners being aligned vertically in the form of columns and horizontally in the form of n rows Ri (where i varies from 1 to n and i increases from the bottom of the furnace upward),   
       in which the burners are ignited according to an ignition sequence consisting of successive steps so that, at the end of ignition, all of the burners necessary for the reforming are ignited, 
       said method comprising; 
       igniting the burners during a given step which all belong to one particular row and in that the order of the first steps of the ignition sequence is the following:
 1—igniting the burners of a row chosen from the highest rows; then 
 2—igniting the burners of a row chosen from the lowest rows; then 
 3—igniting the burners of a row chosen from the rows of the central zone, and then 
 4—igniting the burners of a row chosen from the rows of the lower half, the order of ignition of the rows being chosen so as to improve the uniformity of the heating throughout the furnace. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein at least the row Ri corresponding to the highest “i” is ignited during the first ignition step. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein, when two rows are ignited in succession, they are chosen nonadjacent among the not-yet ignited rows. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the igniting of the burners of a row chosen from the rows of the central zone, comprise the upper half.