| Galvanizing facilities are highly energy intensive operation with electrical and fuel energy representing a significant share of their total energy usage. Furnaces are extensively used in galvanizing process. Production process expertise along with the energy conservation practices can play a significant role in proper usage of energy at galvanizing facilities. Therefore, benchmarking galvanizing energy consumption and understanding the specific energy consumption by various elements are critical. E-GEPDSS (Enhanced Galvanizing Energy Profiler Decision Support System) was built to identify this specific energy consumption by using heat balance analysis. The use of E-GEPDSS does not hinder the production process and the user may run the model for different set of operating conditions and observe the results. The results obtained from the analysis will help the user to make energy enhancing decisions.;This research involved the analysis of galvanizing operations focusing on the furnace side of energy consumption. The furnace heat balance was built and applied using the data collected from a host company during the plant visit. Sensitivity analysis were done to study the impact of changing process and product parameters on the total heat loss from the system.;From the energy analysis conducted for the furnace equipment at the host facility, it was found that the useful heat absorbed by the product is only 50% of the heat supplied to the furnace and rest of heat dissipates as losses. Heat losses from surfaces, walls, water cooling and stack are significant. Heat loss due to opening and phase change heat loss seem not to be significant. Emissivity, dimensions of the furnace, temperature of the zones, thermal conductivity of insulation materials and the strip temperature at the entry and exit of each zone have significant impact on the total heat loss. In the future, the model will be applied extensively to more galvanizing lines in order to help the galvanizers to have a better understanding about the energy consumption while producing their product. |
