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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Evaluation of a fluidized-bed waste-heat recovery system. A technical case study

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:10142849

The US DOE Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) sponsors research and development (R&D) to improve the energy efficiency of American industry and to provide for fuel flexibility. Large amounts of heat escape regularly through the waste-gas streams of industrial processes, particularly those processes that use furnaces, kilns, and calciners. Recovering this waste heat will conserve energy; however, the extremely high temperatures and corrosive nature of many flue and exhaust gases make conventional heat recovery difficult. One solution is a waste-heat recovery system that can withstand the high temperatures and rids itself of corrosion-causing particulates. OIT and Aerojet Energy Conversion Company recently completed a joint project to develop just such a system and to evaluate its long-term operation. This technology, called fluidized-bed waste-heat recovery (FBWHR), offers several advantages over conventional heat recovery, including high gas-side heat-transfer coefficients and a self-cleaning capability. The FBWHR system can recover heat from high-temperature, dirty waste-gas streams, such as those found in the metals, glass, cement, chemical, and petroleum-refining industries. In this multiyear R&D project, Aerojet designed and fabricated an FBWHR system that recovers heat from the corrosive flue gases of aluminum melt furnaces to produce process steam for the plant. The system was installed on a 34-million-Btu/h furnace used to melt aluminum scrap at ALCOA`s Massena, New York plant. During a successful one-year field test, the system produced 26 million lb of 175-psig saturated steam, recovering as much as 28% of the fuel energy input to the furnace.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States); Energetics, Inc., Columbia, MD (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-83CH10093; AC01-87CE40762
OSTI ID:
10142849
Report Number(s):
DOE/CH/10093--79; ON: DE92001224
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English