Thermodynamic Model and Optimization of a Hydrogen-Fueled Industrial Heating Process

Hydrogen-fueled furnaces represent a significant advancement in industrial heating technology, aimed at reducing carbon emissions and enhancing energy efficiency. These furnaces utilize hydrogen as a clean fuel source, enabling various industries to transition from traditional fossil fuels. Recently, many industries are exploring hydrogen furnaces as part of their decarbonization strategies. Hence, this paper models a H2-fired industrial furnaces from a thermodynamic point of view. Moreover, an iterative enthalpy-oriented algorithm is proposed for estimating its adiabatic flame temperature aiming to minimize the combustion heat losses. It should be noted that the difference between the absolute enthalpies of combustion products and reactants refers to the combustion heat losses, which is minimized as the main objective function. The presented approach is simulated using Matlab to determine the optimal operating temperature of the H2-fired industrial furnace under variable air temperature and mass flow rate. It is found that H2 furnaces with flame temperature over 2000°C can be used for metallurgy, ceramics and glass manufacturing, chemical processing and advanced materials research.