Practical approach for engineers to optimise industrial ovens for energy saving

Copyright © 2014, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.Energy saving within the manufacturing sector has a role to play in reducing global energy consumption and green house gas emissions. Despite heating applications being common throughout industry, there is currently no framework that provides practical guidance for energy optimisation in ovens. This paper presents a systematic approach to guide an engineer through five stages of optimisation. It begins with defining the problem and system boundaries, before developing a thorough understanding of the oven system through mass balance and energy analysis as well as identifying all process variables. Analysis of key process variables is conducted to develop process & product understanding and to identify key variables. Improvement of the system and then controlling for full implementation leads to successful conclusion of the project. Application of this methodology has been conducted on curing oven for masking tape manufacture. The optimisation results in a potential 4.7 % annual reduction of the plants energy consumption and off-setting 305 teCO2 from minimal capital expenditure. As the methodology can be tailored to accommodate individual optimisation options for each oven scenario, while still providing a clear pathway, it has potential to reduce energy within the wider manufacturing industry