Energy-Technology Indicators of a Multi-Drum Electric Furnace for Firing Vermiculite Concentrates

The design and working process of a new electric drum furnace for heat treatment of vermiculite concentrates and conglomerates, as well as other bulk porous materials based on a silicate binder, are considered. The electric drum furnace is devoid of the disadvantages inherent in its predecessors – furnaces with a movable hearth platform: there are no oscillating elements, dynamic effects do not occur, and there is also no resonant mode of operation, since the working drums perform rotational motion with a constant angular velocity. Using the example of a six-drum furnace, the volumes of processed material located in the firing spaces are calculated, and the second and hourly productivity of the furnace (10 m3/h or 0.0029 m3/s) are determined. The temperature of the heating elements (1167 K) was calculated, the electric power of the furnace (95.2 kW) and the specific energy intensity of the firing process of vermiculite concentrate, with a dimension of 4 mm (0.004 m) from the raw materials of the Kovdorsky deposit – 44.2 MJ/m3, which makes the furnaces of the new design competitively capable, were determined.