Vortex Air Distribution System for Boiler House

This article describes a new and more efficient Vortex Air Distribution system for a soda recovery boiler house. Essentially th.e technology utilises directional air supply of up to 150 m3/s to compensate for beat gains of up to 2000 kW. Issues addressed include all stages of the design process from the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFO) experiment and scale mock-up tests in the laboratory conditions to the field measurements after the system had been installed. The supply air is distributed into the building through specially designed air terminals. It forms the vortex flow around the boiler surfaces displacing the contaminated warm air towards the exhaust at the top of the boiler house utilising buoyancy forces. Having uniform direction of the air movement inside the boiler house ensures efficient ventilation of the building, preventing stagnant ventilation zones from being formed. The warm air stratified at the top of the boiler house is used in the combustion process thus significantly improving the energy efficiency of the boiler. The air distribution system successfully operates in the soda recovery boiler plant in Rauma, Finland since 1996.