Industrial operating experience of the GTE ceramic recuperator

GTE Products Corporation, under a jointly funded program with the US Department of Energy (DOE), developed a compact ceramic high temperature recuperator that could recover heat from a relatively clean exhaust gases at temperatures up to of 2500{degree}F. The DOE program was very successful in that it allowed GTE to improve the technical and economic characteristics of the recuperator and stimulate industrial acceptance of the recuperator as an energy- saving technology. The success of the DOE Program was measured by the fact that from January 1981 to December 1984, 561 recuperators were installed by GTE on new or retrofitted furnaces. One objective of this contract was to conduct a telephone survey of the industrial plants that use the recuperator to determine their operating experience, present status, and common problems, and thus to complete the historical picture. Additionally, recuperators were returned to GTE after operating on industrial furnaces, and a post mortem'' analysis was undertaken with a goal of identifying the potential reason(s) for premature failure of the ceramic matrix. When contamination of the matrix was evident, historical data and spectrographic analysis were used to identify the type of contaminant, and its source. This effort has shown the type of degradationmore » that occurs and has identified system design techniques that can be used to maximize the ceramic recuperator life cycle. 12 refs., 14 figs., 13 tabs.« less