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Recuperators are frequently used in glass production and metallurgical processes to preheat combustion air by heat exchange with high temperature flue gases. Mass and energy balances of a 15 m high, concurrent radiant recuperator used in a glass fiber production process are given. The balances are used: for validation of a cell modeling method that predicts the performance of different recuperator designs, and for finding a simple solution to improve the existing recuperator. Three possible solutions are analyzed: to use the existing recuperator as a countercurrent one, to add an extra cylinder over the existing construction, and to make a system that consists of a central pipe and two concentric annular ducts. In the latter, two air streams flow in opposite directions, whereas air in the inner annular passage flows concurrently or countercurrently to flue gases. Compared with the concurrent recuperator, the countercurrent has only one drawback: the interface temperature is higher at the bottom. The advantages are: lower interface temperature at the top where the material is under maximal load, higher efficiency, and smaller pressure drop. Both concurrent and countercurrent double pipe-in-pipe systems are only slightly more efficient than pure concurrent and countercurrent recuperators, respectively. Their advantages are smaller interface temperatures whereas the disadvantages are their costs and pressure drops. To implement these solutions, the average velocities should be: for flue gas around 5 m/s, for air in the first passage less than 2 m/s, and for air in the second passage more than 25 m/s.

Due to the irreversibilities that occur during biomass gasification, gasifiers are usually the least efficient units in the systems for production of heat, electricity, or other biofuels. Internal thermal energy exchange is responsible for a part of these irreversibilities and can be reduced by the use of preheated air as a gasifying medium. The focus of the paper is biomass gasification in the whole range of gasification temperatures by the use of air preheated with product gas sensible heat. The energetic and exergetic analyses are carried with a typical ash-free biomass feed represented by CH1.4O0.59N0.0017 at 1 and 10 bar pressure. The tool for the analyses is already validated model extended with a heat exchanger model. For every 200 K of air preheating, the average decrease of the amount of air required for complete biomass gasification is 1.3% of the amount required for its stoichiometric combustion. The air preheated to the gasification temperature on the average increases the lower heating value of the product gas by 13.6%, as well as energetic and exergetic efficiencies of the process. The optimal air preheating temperature is the one that causes gasification to take place at the point where all carbon is consumed. It exists only if the amount of preheated air is less than the amount of air at ambient temperature required for complete gasification at a given pressure. Exergy losses in the heat exchanger, where the product gas preheats air could be reduced by two-stage preheating

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