Search

In today's globalized world, need for competitiveness on one side and constant pressure on the reduction of negative environmental impacts on the other side, are forcing industrial companies to systematically analyse all possibilities for the optimization of their production processes. This paper presents a systematic approach for improving energy efficiency in industrial facilities. Special attention was given to activities that were necessary for the proper identification of energy saving potential and implementation of selected energy efficiency measures in the complex industrial environment. The proposed approach includes four main activities: (1) energy auditing, identification and valorisation of opportunities for improving energy efficiency, (2) identification of key personnel who needs to be trained and motivated to become involved and to make energy efficient decisions in practice, (3) implementation of selected energy efficiency measures and (4) continuous monitoring and verification of achieved results. The proposed approach has been tested in the real industrial environment and the results are confirming that significant energy savings and overall improvement of competitiveness can be reached. Additionally, special emphasis was placed on soft elements like cooperation between energy experts, process operators and maintenance staff that are crucial for the overall success. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019.

This paper investigates a new concept for the CO2 emission mitigation in the ceramic industry based on carbon reduction and methane formation. The concept is analysed as a retrofit to the natural gas fuelled ceramic kiln that represents the main responsible of this industry in terms of energy consumption and exhaust emissions. The carbon dioxide conversion to methane is obtained by reduction with hydrogen on a Ni catalyst and thus methane is used to fuel the standard burners that equip the kiln. The paper addresses different sources for the hydrogen used as a feedstock for the proposed concept as well as alternative catalysts are explored and compared in terms of reduction efficiency and costs. A lumped and distributed parameter simulation of the entire ceramic kiln is combined to the CFD simulation of the reactor to estimate the efficiency of the CO2 reduction and the corresponding methane production for a reference ceramic kiln. The results of the numerical simulations are then employed to discuss the potential benefits of the proposed concept in terms of carbon dioxide emission reduction for the ceramic production. An economic assessment of the system analysed is also carried out concept to determine the investment necessary to implement the technology in an existing ceramic kiln. The potential replicability for other industrial sector is also addressed.