The combustion flue gases inside the flue gas stacks are much hotter than the ambient outside air and therefore less dense than the ambient air. The gauge dials move clockwise with increasing pressure. Building materials changed from stone and brick to steel and later reinforced concrete, and the height of the industrial chimney was determined by the need to disperse combustion flue gases to comply with governmental air pollution control regulations.įlue-gas stack draft The stack effect in chimneys: the gauges represent absolute air pressure and the airflow is indicated with light grey arrows. With the replacement of the steam engine as a prime mover, first by diesel engines and then by electric motors, the early industrial chimneys began to disappear from the industrial landscape.

The invention of fan-assisted forced draft in the early 20th century removed the industrial chimney's original function, that of drawing air into the steam-generating boilers or other furnaces. Decorative embellishments are a feature of many industrial chimneys from the 1860s, with over-sailing caps and patterned brickwork. The taller, free-standing industrial chimneys that appeared in the early 19th century were related to the changes in boiler design associated with James Watt’s 'double-powered' engines, and they continued to grow in stature throughout the Victorian period. The chimneys of Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine were incorporated into the walls of the engine house. The chimney is part of a steam-generating boiler, and its evolution is closely linked to increases in the power of the steam engine. The powerful association between industrial chimneys and the characteristic smoke-filled landscapes of the industrial revolution was due to the universal application of the steam engine for most manufacturing processes. The first free-standing industrial chimneys were probably those erected at the end of the long condensing flues associated with smelting lead. Most 18th-century industrial chimneys (now commonly referred to as flue gas stacks) were built into the walls of the furnace much like a domestic chimney. As such, they played an important part in the development of reverberatory furnaces and a coal-based metallurgical industry, one of the key sectors of the early Industrial Revolution. The first industrial chimneys were built in the mid-17th century when it was first understood how they could improve the combustion of a furnace by increasing the draft of air into the combustion zone. When the flue gases are exhausted from stoves, ovens, fireplaces, heating furnaces and boilers, or other small sources within residential abodes, restaurants, hotels, or other public buildings and small commercial enterprises, their flue gas stacks are referred to as chimneys. The flue gas stacks are often quite tall, up to 420 metres (1,380 ft), to increase the stack effect and dispersion of pollutants. It also contains a small percentage of pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides.

Flue gas is usually composed of carbon dioxide (CO 2) and water vapor as well as nitrogen and excess oxygen remaining from the intake combustion air. Flue gases are produced when coal, oil, natural gas, wood or any other fuel is combusted in an industrial furnace, a power plant's steam-generating boiler, or other large combustion device. Stack A flue gas stack at GRES-2 Power Station in Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan, the tallest of its kind in the world (420 meters or 1,380 feet) Ī flue-gas stack, also known as a smoke stack, chimney stack or simply as a stack, is a type of chimney, a vertical pipe, channel or similar structure through which combustion product gases called flue gases are exhausted to the outside air.

Exhaust stack meaning