PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND HEATING

摘要

The present invention is directed to drying and heating processes and to an apparatus incorporating a pulse combustion device that can be used in a dryi ng system or in a heating system. In general, the apparatus includes a pulse combustion device (12) for the combustion of a fuel to produce a pulsating flow of combustion products and an acoustic pressure wave. The pulse combustion device (12) has a combustion chamber (18) connected to at least o ne resonance tube (20). A resonance chamber (14) surrounds at least a portion o f the pulse combustion device and includes a nozzle (34) downstream from the resonance tube (20). The nozzle (34) accelerates the combustion products flowing therethrough and creates a pulsating velocity head. In a drying syst em (10), the nozzle (34) exits into a drying chamber (16) where the combustion products contact a feed stream. When used in a heating system (70), on the other hand, the nozzle (34) exits into an eductor (72) which mixes the combustion products with a recycled stream of combustion products for formin g an effluent that is fed to a heat exchanging device (74).