Thermal Process Intensification in Industry
Thermal processing of materials, commonly referred to as process heating operations, involves supplying thermal energy to transform materials such as metal, plastic, rubber, limestone (cement), glass, ceramics, and biomass into a wide variety of industrial and consumer products. Industrial heating processes include melting, drying, heat treating, curing, forming, calcining, smelting, and other operations . Examples of common process heating systems include furnaces, ovens, dryers, heaters, kilns, and boiler/steam systems. These equipment systems are operated over a broad range of temperature from 300°F to 3,000°F and require the use of heating systems (e.g., burners, electric heaters) to supply heat, a material handling system to transport materials through the heating system, advanced materials that can withstand high temperatures and challenging environments, controls, and other auxiliary systems.
Most heating systems use fossil fuels that are significant sources of GHG emissions. Their thermal efficiencies (i.e., ratio of energy used for the process material to gross energy input) range from as low as 15% to as high as 80%.
Thermal Process Intensification (TPI) includes all the transformative technologies and strategies that dramatically improve the performance (e.g. energy productivity, thermal efficiency, reduced GHG emissions, reduced number of process steps) of thermal processing systems to make manufacturing operations more productive, precise and efficient.
Global Efficiency Intelligence, LLC is working with US DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to conduct an analysis and series of stakeholders consultation workshops on thermal process intensification in industry. The goals of this project are:
Identify R&D opportunities to significantly improve current thermal processing technologies used in industry
Gain insight into new and innovative approaches, including use of alternate energy sources, to thermally intensify processes, reduce thermal demand, and harness waste heat
Identify the R&D pathways to thermal process intensification with highest potential in short/medium/long-term timeframe.