A case study-the effects of waste heat recovery applications on energy consumption, cost, and greenhouse gas emissions in the wheels production process

The aim of this article is to present the effect of waste heat recovery applications in a wheel heat treatment process on energy consumption, cost, and greenhouse gas emissions. Within the scope of the study, two energy recovery applications were made. Instead of the heat needed in the aging furnace, the waste heat in the solution furnace was recovered and used, in the other application, the waste heat was used to pre-heat the burner supply air. Thus, the results of deactivating the burner system to be used for the heating process in the aging section, as well as the savings achieved by this method and the reduction in unit product cost, were evaluated. Thanks to the savings made to reach the zero-carbon footprint target, the carbon footprint has been reduced. By using the waste heat in the aging furnace, 762.659 MJ hour-1 of energy was saved, and the return on investment was 482.8%. The amount of savings achieved by preheating the burner supply air was determined as 641.022 MJ hour-1. The return-on-investment value was realized as 1116.1%. Thanks to the natural gas savings, 538 tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions are prevented every year.