RRentch’s purchase of land and buildings from a Dallas-based manufacturing company increased shop space in Abilene by 70 percent and enabled Rentch to enhance the construction of our industry-leading boilers. This panel welding and bending machine in our new facilities allows Rentch to build a better furnace with less welding and lower production cost. Rentch specializes in boilers with a headered membrane waterwall design that eliminates refractory walls and seals and produces for our clients boilers that cannot fail because of overheating.
The furnace section of the proposed boilers is comprised of 100% membrane wall design and is constructed of 2.0”OD tubes on 4” centers. The tubes are connected by 1/4” x 2” carbon steel membranes to form a totally water-cooled enclosure, including the front and rear walls. This design avoids the traditional problems that package boilers had with firebrick and refractory maintenance. When operating conditions dictate it, we can increase the membrane thickness, reduce the membrane width or even use higher alloy materials. Rentech uses its own propriety software to predict the membrane temperature and resultant stresses which ultimately dictate the membrane selection.
Membrane walls will be constructed as multiple tube panels maximizing machine welding and eliminating a fin-to-fin weld between tubes. The membrane wall construction is unique because it utilizes a headered construction, which eliminates the need for and the traditional problems associated with gas seals in the corners of the furnace.
Our competition would utilize steel box seals at locations where one furnace wall joins another. These gas seals require the use of refractory or ceramic fiber to protect them from the high temperatures in the furnace. Problems with gas seal failures arise over time as the refractory or ceramic fiber fails – exposing the gas seals to 2,000°F temperatures.
With Rentch’s headered wall design, the water-cooled header forms the corners. It simply cannot fail by overheating.
