Development of an electric furnace for heat treatment of vermiculite with curved surfaces of firing modules

Abstract

A new modification of electric modular firing furnaces for heat treatment of vermiculite with curved surfaces of firing modules is considered. The basic designs of such furnaces consist of three or two flat modules installed at an angle to each other for pouring material from one module to another and firing in a thermal field created by electric heaters. With the same length of the refractory base of curved modules, the heat treatment time increases by 23 %, and the exit velocity of the swelling vermiculite grains decreases to 0,6‒0,65 m/s, which is enough so that all particles, regardless of size, do not settle at the exit of the modules and do not form congestion. Increasing the duration of firing does not reduce the productivity of the furnace, but reduces the specific energy intensity of this process. The energy consumption and energy
intensity of vermiculite firing have been reduced by 13 %, but the module design is not optimal. Optimization of the size and shape of modules to increase the energy efficiency of the furnace unit is the task of subsequent research.