A carbon baking furnace has at least one vertical baking shaft with a system and method for positioning green carbon bodies to be baked at the top of the vertical baking path and ringing the green carbon bodies with a sacrificial medium such as packing coke. The disclosure provides a system and method for controlling the delivery and removal of the sacrificial medium used to surround the carbon bodies within the baking paths. A volatile extraction system and method are provided. A system and method for unloading baked carbon bodies is disclosed.

A device for producing expanded granulated material from grains of sand with an expanding agent includes a furnace with a furnace shaft, which has upper and lower ends. A conveying section extends between the ends and passes through separately-arranged heating zones in a conveying direction. At least one feeder charges at least the unexpanded material into the furnace shaft at one end toward the other end. At least one rotatable shaft insert is arranged at least in sections in the furnace shaft and has at least one scraper blade forming with an inner wall of the furnace shaft at least one gap having a gap width and being designed, during rotation of the at least one shaft insert in an operating state of the device, to remove caking on the inner wall at least in sections if a thickness of the caking is greater than the respective gap width.

Process for calcining mineral rock in a regenerative parallel-flow vertical shaft furnace, containing at least two shafts (1, 2) interconnected by a gas transfer channel (3), each shaft operating alternately in firing mode and in preheating mode, the firing mode comprising a combustion of fuel in the presence of air so as to obtain a firing of the rock to give calcined rock, an emission of combustion gases, and a passage of these gases from one shaft to the other by means of said channel (3), the preheating mode comprising a heat exchange between said rock and said combustion gases from said channel (3), this process additionally comprising an injection of supplementary air into said channel (3) with oxidation of unburnt products contained in the combustion gases passing through this channel.

A system for conditioning stucco particulate material includes a vessel having separation chamber in communication with a holding chamber having a holding volume therein. The conditioning system includes the holding volume sufficient to condition the stucco particulate material therein and/or a control system configured to delay discharge of the stucco particulate material from the holding chamber. The system for conditioning stucco particulate material is configured to increase residence time of the stucco particulate material in the holding chamber to promote calcining conditioning therein.

An example sinter system includes a sinter gas inlet at a sinter furnace for a sinter gas, a tracer gas inlet at the sinter furnace for a tracer gas different from the sinter gas, and an outlet at the sinter furnace to output the sinter gas and the tracer gas. The example sinter system further includes: a support structure to support a sample green object in the sinter furnace, an opening at the support structure connected to the tracer gas inlet, the opening to output the tracer gas into the sinter furnace, and a detector to: determine an amount of the tracer gas flowing through the outlet during a sinter process as a sample green object positioned on the support structure changes shape during the sinter process with respect to the opening and modifies a flow rate of the tracer gas to the outlet; and determine when to stop the sinter process based on a determined amount of the tracer gas.

Provided are a heat treatment apparatus for carbonaceous grains and a method therefor allowing drifts and internal clogging in a direct energizing furnace to not occur, allowing heat treatment of the carbonaceous grains to be continued uniformly at high temperatures for a prolonged period of time, and allowing productivity and workability to be improved. A conductive tubular structure 14 is electrically connected to an upper part of a lower electrode 13 in a manner of surrounding an upper electrode 12. The rate of change between the specific electrical resistivity of grains when grains are lightly filled and the specific electrical resistivity of grains when the grains are tap filled is defined (1-tap filling/lightly filling)×100, and the rate of change is equal to less than 70%.

A system for reducing NOx emission levels during the manufacture of cement clinker having a calciner unit with the following features: an upper portion; a lower portion; a NOx reduction zone in the lower portion; a tertiary air inlet in the upper portion for introducing tertiary air into the upper portion; a main calciner meal inlet located above the NOx reduction zone for introducing a main calciner meal portion into the upper portion; a first cooling calciner meal inlet located in the NOx reduction zone for introducing a first cooling calciner meal portion into a periphery of the NOx reduction zone; and a fuel inlet located in or below the NOx reduction zone for introducing fuel into the reduction zone.

A furnace may include at least two vertical shafts, each of which may have at an upper end thereof an inlet for material to be burnt and at a lower end thereof a burnt material outlet. The inlet and the outlet may be connected by a transfer channel. In each case, at least one main burner may be positioned above the transfer channel, and a cooling gas inlet may be positioned below the transfer channel. At least one additional burner may be positioned below the transfer channel in each of the shafts. Such a furnace can be operated such that the material to be burnt in the currently fired shaft is at least partially calcined in a main burning zone above the transfer channel, and then thermally aftertreated in an additional burning zone positioned between the transfer channel and the additional burner.

An example sinter system includes a sinter gas inlet at a sinter furnace for a sinter gas, a tracer gas inlet at the sinter furnace for a tracer gas different from the sinter gas, and an outlet at the sinter furnace to output the sinter gas and the tracer gas. The example sinter system further includes: a support structure to support a sample green object in the sinter furnace, an opening at the support structure connected to the tracer gas inlet, the opening to output the tracer gas into the sinter furnace, and a detector to: determine an amount of the tracer gas flowing through the outlet during a sinter process as a sample green object positioned on the support structure changes shape during the sinter process with respect to the opening and modifies a flow rate of the tracer gas to the outlet; and determine when to stop the sinter process based on a determined amount of the tracer gas.

A heat treatment apparatus includes: a furnace core tube made of silica glass; a heater provided adjacent to the furnace core tube, the heater heating a heating region; and a moving mechanism supporting a porous glass base material and relatively moving the porous glass base material with respect to the heater in the furnace core tube in a state where the heating region is heated by the heater to make the porous glass base material pass through the heating region. The heat treatment apparatus includes a thin-walled part provided in a region adjacent to a portion located in the heating region in the furnace core tube, the thin-walled part having a thickness of glass less than that of the portion located in the heating region.