Optimized furnace burner adjustment for flameless combustion

Abstract

A furnace heating device comprising one or more radiant tubes that are configured in one or more zones of a furnace chamber; one or more burners that are coupled to the one or more radiant tubes and one or more burner control units; a programmable controller that is configured to determine one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures that respectively correspond to the one or more radiant tubes, generate one or more control signals based on the one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures with respect to a threshold temperature, wherein the one or more control signals instruct the one or more burners to operate in a flame combustion operation or a flameless combustion operation, and provide the one or more control signals to the one or more burner control units to enable flameless combustion at furnace chamber temperatures that are below a minimum temperature for flameless combustion.

1 . A furnace heating device comprising:
 a furnace chamber comprising one or more zones;   one or more radiant tubes that are configured in the one or more zones;   one or more burners that are coupled to the one or more radiant tubes;   one or more burner control units that are communicatively coupled to the one or more burners; and   a programmable controller that is communicatively coupled to the one or more burner control units, wherein the programmable controller is configured to:   determine one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures that respectively correspond to the one or more radiant tubes based on (i) a furnace chamber temperature signal that is representative of a furnace chamber temperature and (ii) one or more furnace and burner parameters that respectively correspond to the one or more radiant tubes,   generate one or more control signals based on the one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures with respect to a threshold temperature, wherein the one or more control signals instruct the one or more burners to operate in a flame combustion operation or a flameless combustion operation, and   provide the one or more control signals to the one or more burner control units.   
     
     
         2 . The furnace heating device of  claim 1  further comprising a furnace chamber thermocouple that is configured to:
 measure the furnace chamber temperature; 
 generate the furnace chamber temperature signal based on the furnace chamber temperature; and 
 provide the furnace chamber temperature signal to the programmable controller. 
 
     
     
         3 . The furnace heating device of  claim 1  further comprising a control thermocouple that is configured to:
 measure a temperature of a given radiant tube of the one or more radiant tubes; and 
 generate a control signal based on the temperature of the given radiant tube. 
 
     
     
         4 . The furnace heating device of  claim 3 , wherein the programmable controller is further configured to determine the one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures based on the control signal. 
     
     
         5 . The furnace heating device of  claim 1 , wherein the programmable controller is further configured to:
 determine that the one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures are greater than or equal to a threshold temperature; and   generate the one or more control signals for operating the one or more burners in the flameless combustion operation based on the one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures are greater than or equal to the threshold temperature.   
     
     
         6 . The furnace heating device of  claim 1 , wherein the programmable controller is further configured to:
 determine that the one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures are less than a threshold temperature; and   generate the one or more control signals for operating the one or more burners in the flame combustion operation based on the one or more estimated radiant tube temperatures are less than the threshold temperature.   
     
     
         7 . The furnace heating device of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more furnace and burner parameters comprise (i) a measured temperature of the furnace chamber, (ii) geometry and material construction of the one or more radiant tubes, (ii) capacity and adjusted excess air of the one or more burners, (iii) arrangement of the one or more radiant tubes in the furnace chamber and relatively to a material heated in the furnace chamber, or (v) a calculated temperature of the material. 
     
     
         8 . The furnace heating device of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more burners comprise a plurality of recuperator burners that are configured to operate with high air preheating. 
     
     
         9 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 determining, by one or more processors, an estimated radiant tube temperature of a radiant tube based on a plurality of furnace and burner parameters;   monitoring, by the one or more processors, the estimated radiant tube temperature with respect to a threshold temperature;   generating, by the one or more processors, one or more first control signals that are associated with flame combustion operation based on the estimated radiant tube temperature being less than the threshold temperature; and   generating, by the one or more processors, one or more second control signals that are associated with flameless combustion operation based on the estimated radiant tube temperature being equal to or greater than the threshold temperature.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein the estimated radiant tube temperature comprises a representative temperature of a given radiant tube of a plurality of radiant tubes. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein the plurality of furnace and burner parameters are associated with radiant tube surface, radiant tube mass, furnace room temperature, or current burner capacity. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein determining the estimated radiant tube temperature further comprises determining a net burner capacity and a radiative heat transfer from a radiant tube. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9  further comprising modifying the estimated radiant tube temperature based on a control radiant tube temperature. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 13  further comprising generating, based on the control radiant tube temperature, training data that are used to train or modify machine learning model parameters. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9  further comprising initializing the estimated radiant tube temperature to a furnace chamber temperature based on a restart or error condition. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein determining the estimated radiant tube temperature further comprises determining a flame operation with a minimum operating time. 
     
     
         17 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
 determine an estimated radiant tube temperature based on a plurality of furnace and burner parameters;   monitor the estimated radiant tube temperature with respect to a threshold temperature;   generate one or more first control signals based on the estimated radiant tube temperature being less than the threshold temperature; and   generate one or more second control signals based on the estimated radiant tube temperature being equal to or greater than the threshold temperature.   
     
     
         18 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 16 , wherein the estimated radiant tube temperature comprises a representative temperature of a given radiant tube of a plurality of radiant tubes. 
     
     
         19 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 16 , wherein the plurality of furnace and burner parameters are associated with radiant tube surface, radiant tube mass, furnace room temperature, or current burner capacity. 
     
     
         20 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of  claim 16  further including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine the estimated radiant tube temperature further comprises determining a net burner capacity and a radiative heat transfer from a radiant tube.