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Energy and exergy inventory in aluminum smelter from a thermal integration point‐of‐view
Author(s) -
Zhao Ruijie,
Nowicki Cassandre,
Gosselin Louis,
Duchesne Carl
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.3508
Subject(s) - exergy , smelting , waste management , work (physics) , environmental science , exergy efficiency , waste heat , waste heat recovery unit , aluminium smelting , environmental engineering , engineering , metallurgy , mechanical engineering , materials science , heat exchanger
Summary Primary aluminum production is a very energy‐intensive industry (~13 MWh per ton of aluminum produced), involving several complex processes within a plant. The paper presents a mass, energy and exergy analysis of an entire smelter. This work was motivated by the need to evaluate the potential for waste heat recovery/thermal integration in such a plant. Three of the main sectors of a smelter are studied, namely the carbon anode production, the electrolytic reduction and the casting. The analysis is applied to a typical smelter producing 260 000 MT Al per year. It was found that the most important waste heat source is the exhaust gases, with an exergy of 0.57 MWh per ton of aluminum produced. The total exergy destroyed in the plant was found to be around 7.7 MWh/MT Al . The potential for doing useful work associated with heat dissipated at process boundaries is also evaluated. Results highlight sources of thermodynamic inefficiencies and indicate where exergy is mainly destroyed throughout the plant. The results contribute in developing a better understanding of the energy and exergy flow within a smelter. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.