Fired Furnaces, Kilns, and Driers

Fired furnaces, kilns, and driers are special types of chemical reactor in which a combustible fuel (gas, oil, coal, wood, etc.) is burned in the presence of air to provide heat at a high temperature level. Generating high-pressure steam in power plants, providing heat in process units (distillation columns, reactors with endothermic reactions, etc.), producing lime, and smelting ore are common examples. 

The control issues with the fuel combustion units involve supplying the required energy in a safe and efficient manner. This energy demand usually changes dynamically as dictated by the needs of the process. 

For a typical and important example, let us consider the steam-generating boiler in an electrical power plant. The consumption of steam by the turbine driving the generator 

Advanced gasifier control, Comput. Control. Eng. J. IEE, 10(3), 93-96 (1999). 

A1 Seyab and Y. Cao, Nonlinear model predictive control of the ALSTOM gasifier, J. Process Control, 16, 795-808 (2006). 

---