Thermal storage unit including: a receptacle including orifices allowing a heat-transfer fluid to be introduced into and extracted, and a stack of bricks, arranged in the receptacle in superposed strata, each stratum having lower and upper large faces and defining a plurality of ducts opening via lower and upper openings, the stack including a pair of strata of a lower and upper stratum, the upper and lower large faces of the lower and upper stratum being separated to define a passage, placing an upper opening of a lower duct of the lower stratum in fluidic communication with at least one lower opening, entirely offset with respect to the upper opening, of at least one upper duct of the upper stratum, the lower large face of the upper stratum closing off, at least partially, the upper opening, when the upper opening is observed, along its axis, from the lower duct.

Furnace operation includes consecutive cycles of a heating step, a stopping step and a restarting step. The fuel and/or the oxidizing agent is preheated upstream of the furnace by indirect exchange with the discharged fumes through a medium passing through a chamber. A first wall separates the fumes from the medium in the chamber. The fuel and/or oxidizing agent is separated from the medium in the chamber by a second wall. During restarting, the medium's flow rate Dm is regulated to limit the heating rate of the first wall until it reaches the operational temperature at an end thereof.

An example embodiment of the present invention provides a system for preheating ferromagnetic scrap. The system can include a preheating unit that is configured to hold ferromagnetic scrap and to receive hot gases. The preheating unit may include a removable cover that can include an electrical magnet system. The electrical magnet system can comprise an electrical magnet, a lifting device configured to lower and raise the electrical magnet, a power system configured to provide electrical power to the electrical magnet, and an electrical control system configured to operate the magnet. A hot gases cleaning system may be fluidly connected to the preheating unit.

Furnace operation includes consecutive cycles of a heating step, a stopping step and a restarting step. The fuel and/or the oxidizing agent is preheated upstream of the furnace by indirect exchange with the discharged fumes through a medium passing through a chamber. A first wall separates the fumes from the medium in the chamber. The fuel and/or oxidizing agent is separated from the medium in the chamber by second wall. During restarting, the medium's flow rate Dm is regulated to limit the heating rate of the first wall until it reaches the operational temperature at an end thereof.

Disclosed is a regenerative burner system for use in industrial furnaces, containing at least one burner which generates heat by forming a flame by combining air with a gas contained therein to maximize the use of the heat emitted from the chimney of the furnace; and a regenerator over which a fluid flows, which first stores the heat generated by the burner on a filler with a high heat capacity and then transfers this heat to the fluid, which contains a grate piece which is in an inclined position in the regenerator, has filler on it and passes air flow through the filler, at least one discharge door transferring the end-of-life filler to the basket located outside the regenerator, and at least one filling door transferring the new filler to the chamber located in the regenerator.

Thermal storage unit including: a receptacle including orifices allowing a heat-transfer fluid to be introduced into and extracted, and a stack of bricks, arranged in the receptacle in superposed strata, each stratum having lower and upper large faces and defining a plurality of ducts opening via lower and upper openings, the stack including a pair of strata of a lower and upper stratum, the upper and lower large faces of the lower and upper stratum being separated to define a passage, placing an upper opening of a lower duct of the lower stratum in fluidic communication with at least one lower opening, entirely offset with respect to the upper opening, of at least one upper duct of the upper stratum, the lower large face of the upper stratum closing off, at least partially, the upper opening, when the upper opening is observed, along its axis, from the lower duct.

An example embodiment of the present invention provides a system for preheating ferromagnetic scrap. The system can include a preheating unit that is configured to hold ferromagnetic scrap and to receive hot gases. The preheating unit may include a removable cover that can include an electrical magnet system. The electrical magnet system can comprise an electrical magnet, a lifting device configured to lower and raise the electrical magnet, a power system configured to provide electrical power to the electrical magnet, and an electrical control system configured to operate the magnet. A hot gases cleaning system may be fluidly connected to the preheating unit.

The invention relates to a process of melting ferrous metal using a gaseous fuel, a liquid fuel or a pulverized solid fuel in a cokeless horizontal reverberatory furnace (FIG. 1) consisting of a hearth (1), an sloped melting chamber (2) a vertical refractory grid (4), a burner (3), a recuperator or regenerator (5) to transfer heat from waste gas and products of combustion to fresh oxygen bearing gases, whereas a burner system is installed on the hearth for combustion of the fuel and oxygen bearing gas, the hearth under the burner acts as a superheater to achieve the temperature necessary for alloying and to receive the molten metal cascading from the sloped melting chamber, the sloped melting chamber being fed from one end by the rising gas products of combustion and in which the waste gases are subject to post-combustion of carbon monoxide and volatiles before passing through a recuperator or a regenerator to pre-heat the oxygen bearing gases necessary for combustion.