The GTE Ceramic Recuperator for High Temperature Waste Heat Recovery

Abstract

GTE Products Corporation has developed a high temperature compact cross-flow ceramic recuperator that is capable of recovering energy from relatively clean furnace exhaust gases at temperatures up to 2500 F by preheating the combustion air to the burners. In a recently completed cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and GTE (Contract No. DE-FCOI-80CS40330) entitled Technology Acceleration Program for High Temperature Recuperators, GTE was to test, install and collect baseline and operating data for 175 industrial applications of the ceramic recuperator. GTE selected 38 plant sites (primarily from the metals processing industries) for the program. The selected furnaces operated at temperatures from 1600 F to 2500 F and the resulting preheated au temperatures ranged from 700 F to 1300 F. The fuel savings ranged from 12% to 61% and the vast majority of installations recorded payback periods of less than 2.5 years. This paper presents the results of this project and briefly describes the selection of the industrial host sites, the furnace retrofit system designs, the resulting fuel savings and productivity improvements, the payback and areas of concern in high temperature waste heat recovery. Also included is a recuperator technology update.