CFD analysis of a syngas-fired burner for ceramic industrial roller kiln

Kiln burners for industrial tile production are usually fuelled by methane gas. However, the interest towards the use of coal or synthesis gases is rapidly increasing, mainly due to the opening of important markets in developing countries. The widely variable chemical composition of these fuels demands the gas burner to be adapted on case-by-case basis, since the firing parameters are strictly fixed, to guarantee the required temperature distribution within the kiln. In this context, computational fluid dynamics analysis represents a very convenient alternative to the traditional design based on experiments. In this article three-dimensional numerical predictions are presented for a syngas-fired burner. Three different fuels, two burner layouts and two burner nominal power are considered. Temperature, velocity and oxygen mass fraction distributions are discussed, and general design lines for low lower heating value gas burners are extracted.