Ionic Liquid Cooling Technology In Metallurgical Furnaces

Abstract:

More intense furnace operations require effective cooling in order to achieve low refractory wear and good furnace lifetimes, making cooling technology is an important aspect of furnace opera-tions. Optimum cooling solutions are required for the most critical furnace regions. However, the use of water - today’s standard cooling medium - has some disadvantages, as it can cause prob-lems both during furnace start up and operation, namely hydration problems, corrosion, and ex-plosions. With METTOP’s new patented cooling technology it is possible to overcome the disadvantages of water by using an alternative cooling medium, namely ionic liquids (ILs). The big advantage of ILs is the fact that they can be used at higher temperatures than water (hence avoiding hydration and corrosion) and do not lead to explosions when contacting molten copper. This results in prolonged refractory life and hence furnace campaigns, as well as improved work safety.Different ILs were tested thoroughly regarding contact with liquid copper, corrosion, and heat transfer. Furthermore CFD calculations were made to investigate and the heat transfer. These were verified by experiments in a test stand. The good results of the tests lead to the design of first industrial cooling solutions. Due to the special properties of ILs, they are not only a substitute for water cooling but can also be used in applications where water cooling would be too danger-ous, and hence provide a wide range of possible applications in metallurgical furnaces.

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