Recent Improvements In Evaporative Cooling Technology For Copper Tapholes And Launders

A great deal of effort has been expended on how to optimize conventional water cooling circuits in furnace cooling elements, and the results have been largely satisfactory. However, there is a general agreement that the proximity of high-pressure water passages to the flow of molten furnace products is a safety concern. Nonetheless there exists little alternative to the formula: increasing furnace integrity implies the incorporation of more extensive forced-convection water cooling systems. Recent developments in evaporative cooling technology have resulted in the development of a high-capacity heat pipe capable of operating under the thermally intense environments of a metallurgical furnace. The system functions using several kg of a working fluid (water) in total, has no moving parts, and allows for a significant reduction in cooling water requirements. Full-scale pilot tests of a copper tap hole and slag launder were done in 2003 and2005, with detailed results given in this paper.