Patent GB-1110326-A (GB)
Title: The transfer of generator seed material and heat from outlet gases of mhd generatorsto inlet gases thereof
IPC: H02K44/08
Filed: 1965-07-28
Abstract: 1,110,326. Thermal regenerators. SIEMENSSCHUCKERTWERKE, A. G. 28 July, 1965 [28 July, 1964], No. 32354/65. Heading F4K. In the operation of an electricity generating plant including an M.H.D. generator (not indicated), a flowable heat transfer substance which may be granular but which is preferably molten is used to transfer heat and " seed " material (i.e. the readily ionisable substances normally added to the flame gases of an M.H.D. generator) from the outgoing waste gases to the incoming air for combustion. In the regenerator shown the heat transfer substance is a silicate glass a mass of which in the form of solid particles, is contained in a melting chamber 19. The M.H.D. generator waste gases which contain vaporized " seed " material enter the regenerator at 4 and give up heat to molten glass from the melting chamber as the glass flows through an inclined, baffled duct 20. The heat of the gases is sufficient to maintain a melting zone at the lower end of the chamber 19 which the gases enter via a nozzle 23. As the gases pass upwardly through the chamber 19 to a flue 25 the entrained " seed " material is condensed on to the glass particles and carried back to the melting zone as the particles descend the chamber 19. From a point below the melting chamber at which the highest concentration of " seed " material is found, some of the molten glass is tapped off and delivered through a pressure lock 18 and a pipe 17, to an inclined and baffled duct 21 in which the combustion air for the M.H.D. generator is being heated. The pipe 17 enters the duct 21 at a point where the air has been sufficiently heated to revapourize the " seed " material, and the vapour becomes mixed with the heated air stream passing through a conduit 3 to the generator. The molten glass flows down the duct 21 to a particle-forming unit 22 in which the glass is reformed into solid particles by a jet of compressed air entering the unit via a nozzle 41. The air jet breaks up the glass stream into droplets which solidify and collect in a chamber 43 and are thereafter conveyed by a device 13 to the melting chamber 19. The air is directed through a duct 47 leading to the duct 21. The heat transfer substance which may alternatively comprise aluminium oxide, bauxite or the mineral pollux, may be cycled either as shown by means of the pressure lock chambers 11, 18; or by the use of pumps. In another arrangement described (Fig. 2), a further heat exchange stage (6) precedes the stage described above. In this additional stage (stage 6) a circulatory heat transfer medium is again employed to transfer heat between the generator waste gases and combustion air, the circulating medium in this case being the " seed " material. A potassium compound is given as an example. The melting chamber 19 may be of steel and lined either with magnesite bricks, or with solidified glass from the melt. In yet another arrangement, in which the heat transfer substance remains molten throughout the cycle, the melting chamber 19 is omitted and replaced by a separating device (Fig. 4).