Top combustion stove

1. A burner assembly for top combustion hot blast stove comprising:

a burner surrounded by a burner shell, wherein said burner has a circular cross-section;

a number of air nozzles arranged for tangentially feeding air to the burner, the air nozzles being connected to one or more air distribution chambers;

a number of gas nozzles arranged for tangentially feeding gas to the burner, the gas nozzles being connected to one or more gas distribution chambers;

wherein the air nozzles are arranged in one or more inclined or vertical stacked arrays of air nozzles, each inclined or vertical stacked array being in connection with one inclined or vertical air distribution chamber;

wherein the gas nozzles are arranged in one or more inclined or vertical stacked arrays of gas nozzles, each inclined or vertical stacked array being in connection with one inclined or vertical gas distribution chamber;

wherein the inclined or vertical air distribution chamber(s) and the inclined or vertical gas distribution chamber(s) are distributed along a circumference of the burner shell; and

wherein the burner shell includes a plurality of continuous inclined or vertical wall sections disposed in between adjacent chambers from an outer surface of the burner shell to an inner surface of the burner shell.

2. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the inclined or vertical air and gas distribution chambers are arranged within the burner shell.

3. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a number of nozzles in each of the inclined or vertical stacked arrays of air and gas nozzles is between 2 and 20.

4. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the inclined stacked air and gas arrays are inclined at an angle up to 60° relative to a vertical axis of the burner.

5. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a frustoconical secondary combustion chamber surrounded by a cone shell and arranged below the burner.

6. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the burner is detachably affixed to the cone shell of the frustoconical secondary combustion chamber by a flange.

7. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 5 , wherein an aperture angle of the frustoconical secondary combustion chamber is between 50° and 70°.

8. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 5 , wherein a height of a section of the frustoconical secondary combustion chamber section will be chosen to be 0.3 to 5 times the height of a primary combustion chamber.

9. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 , comprising two or more air distribution chambers and two or more gas distribution chambers, further comprising a manifold type air feeding pipes and gas feeding pipes arranged outside the burner shell and fluidly connecting the air and gas distribution chambers to air and gas supply, respectively.

10. The burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 , configured to refurbish, renovate, or upgrade an existing hot blast stove.

11. A top combustion hot blast stove comprising a stove shell; a volume of checker bricks arranged within said stove shell; and a burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said burner is axially arranged in an upper section of the stove shell.

12. The hot blast stove as claimed in claim 11 , further comprising a circulation zone above the volume of checker bricks.

13. The hot blast stove as claimed in claim 11 , further comprising a hot blast downpipe within the stove shell.

14. A method for refurbishing, renovating or upgrading an existing hot blast stove with an existing burner assembly, the method comprising the steps of removing the existing burner assembly from said hot blast stove and mounting a burner assembly as claimed in claim 1 to said hot blast stove.