The Impact of Critical Operational Parameters on the Performance of the Aluminum Anode Baking Furnace

Abstract

Minimizing energy consumption and reducing pollutant emissions during the carbon anode baking process is critically important for the aluminum industry. The present study investigates the effects of oxidizer inlet temperature, inlet oxygen concentration, equivalence ratio, refractory wall thermal conductivity, and refractory wall emissivity on the baking process using URANS-based simulations in conjunction with the presumed probability density function method. Numerical results are combined with a response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize the anode baking process. The advantage of the coupled method is that it can adequately provide information on interactions of different input parameters. It is remarked that the significance level of the studied parameters varies drastically for different outputs. It is noted that diluting inlet oxygen concentration (from 23% in atmospheric air to 15%) at an elevated oxidizer temperature leads to enhanced furnace fuel efficiency, more uniform temperature distribution, and lower pollutant emissions. A linear model is detected to be adequate for response surface modeling of the anode baking furnace NOx formation. On the other hand, furnace soot formation is modeled with a higher-order model due to the quadratic behavior of the response.

Modeling Conjugate Heat Transfer in an Anode Baking Furnace Using OpenFoam

“…During the electrolysis process, the anodes wear and require regular replacement. The design and operation of anode baking furnaces has attracted recent attention in e.g., [1,2] and references cited therein. These furnaces consist of long parallel masonry refractory walls.…”

“…The numerical simulation of the turbulent combustion in anode baking furnaces was pursued in e.g., [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and the references cited therein. These references provide valuable information on the general thermal management and fuel consumption in these furnaces.…”

Raster Angle Impact on Fdm-Based Additive Manufactured Fluidic Oscillator

“…Among the actuators, fluidic oscillators of different types and designs have attracted much attention and are advantageous since they are easy to fabricate and do not involve moving parts. The fluidic oscillator has been widely studied for several engineering applications such as separation control [5] and combustion control [6] to minimize the pollutants emission from exothermic reactive flows [7][8][9][10][11]. In the last few decades, attempts have been made to make transport mediums more sustainable and energy efficient [12].…”