EUROPEAN STEEL TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION DAYS 2017 - ESTAD 2017

Natural gas burners are prevailing tools for a wide range of metallurgical operations. The field of usage is extensive and includes, i.e., melting of scrap in EAF, heating of slabs in pre-heating furnaces or post combustion in off-gas treatment plants. Since the invention of the Bunsen burner in 1857 the design of natural gas burners have changed substantially. Modern day burner designs like the SIS plus® and CONSO R6® are hybrid burner/injector systems and allow for multiple operation modes. During melting of scrap they are used as non-premixed natural gas burners with optimized flame length. During flat bath operations the burners are switched to injector mode and allow for a long and stable oxygen jet. In between these process sequences a pilot mode flame protects the unit from being splashed. In contrast to hybrid burner/injectors the new Proportional Oxygen (PROX) burner is a light, multipurpose burner for a wide range of metallurgical applications. The PROX design provides adjustable nozzles for the fuel and oxidizer duct, thus the flow rates can be adapted to varying process requirements and power levels, respectively. This allows the usage of this burner without a valve stand. The paper summarizes the current development status, results from laboratory field tests at a 4 MW PROX burner and accompanying CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations as well as the potentials of the PROX burner.