The evolution of the RTO from inception to today’s design has brought a multitude of changes. These all have been aimed at making the equipment smaller, lighter, more efficient, and less expensive to purchase and to operate. Many of these auxiliary features were developed by NESTEC’s staff who have been involved with the RTO evolution since the first RTO in the 1970s.
New and improved oxidizer technology developed by the team at NESTEC:
- NESTEC horizontal poppet valves with fast acting pneumatic actuators
- NESTEC multi-combustion chamber (MCC)
- NESTEC natural gas enhancement (NGE)
- NESTEC auto-thermal alignment control
- NESTEC uniform air flow distribution nozzle
- NESTEC full flow online bake out (patent pending)
One modern design improvement that’s had a huge impact on overall cost-effectiveness and performance is the configuration of the heat exchange media.
Industrial regenerative heat recovery was born in the early 1880s with glass furnaces. This system employed two large brick chambers in a matrix: Air flowed through and around the bricks, and the chambers provided a passive heat sink to adsorb heat from the hot furnace exhaust flow. That heat was then reused to preheat air flowing into the furnace. The heat sink, in this case, consisted of bricks stacked in a checkerboard arrangement.
This “checker work” design provided a relatively small surface area per unit volume and required an enormous mass per unit volume to absorb heat and store it for long periods of time.
NESTEC’s RTOs and RCOs have optimized the benefits of structured media, simplified flow control valves, improved uniform air flow distribution, and compacted the configuration into a smaller prepackaged unit, greatly improving on the original design.
Fast forward a century: The first RTO of the early 1970s used a random ceramic saddle media, named after its configuration. This design had significantly more surface area and less mass than the checker work system. The saddle media allowed the RTO to achieve TER efficiencies as great as 85 percent, which dramatically reduced the amount of fuel required.
By the 1980s, increased depths of random saddle media in the RTO were achieving TER efficiencies as great as 95 percent. However, that 10 percent increase in TER resulted in a 100 percent increase in electrical consumption.
Then, in the early 1990s, engineers found that structured (monolithic) ceramic blocks provide an ideal heat recovery media for RTOs. Thermal efficiency recoveries as high as 96 percent have been achieved with structured media — which represents a 25 percent reduction in fuel consumption over the previous design.
NESTEC’s RTOs and RCOs have optimized the benefits of structured media, simplified flow control valves, improved uniform air flow distribution, and compacted the configuration into a smaller prepackaged unit, greatly improving on the original design.
Today, NESTEC technology offers:
- A smaller, more compact unit for a lower capital investment
- 30 – 50 percent reduction in energy consumption
- Increased destruction efficiency
- 30 – 40 percent faster field installation time
Together, NESTEC’s improvements make it possible for industry to remain in regulatory compliance while continuing to turn a profit.
Many of the NESTEC features can be added to existing RTOs presently in operation today. Call or email NESTEC for a free evaluation to find the most economical solution for your application.
Office: 610.323.7670
Jim Nester, CEO: jnester@nestecinc.com
Rick Reimlinger, Vice President: rick.reimlinger@nestecinc.com
Rodney Pennington, Vice President of Special Projects: rpennington@nestecinc.com
William Holden, Aftermarket & Service Manager: wholden@nestecinc.com
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