Heating and cooling conditions for the regenerators in converter gas recovery scheme

A converter gas recovery scheme consisting of two regenerators for the accumulation of gas combustion heat and the heating of air flow to a temperature of 1250–1350 °C is proposed. Air heat is used in a heat-recovery steam generator to generate steam for a condensing steam turbine. Equations describing the heating and cooling of the regenerators are given and used to calculate the temperatures of the regenerator checkers, gas, and air. Recommendations are given for selecting the regenerator checker dimensions at a converter gas flow rate of 125,000 Nm³/h, the heating and cooling periods, and air flow rate. In one cycle of operation of two converters of 410 t capacity, the regenerators can accumulate 301.3 GJ of heat, which is 87.3% of the converter gas combustion heat. If the cycle duration is 40 min, the proposed scheme can generate 50 MW of electricity. The payback period for a converter gas recovery unit based on this scheme is estimated to be 1.3 to 1.6 years.