21 Unique Ideas to

Save Energy Cost

of Heat Treatment

- By Pankaj Deval
CEO - htcourses.com

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 21 Unique Ideas to Save Energy Cost of Heat Treatment

Energy cost is the biggest component of the overall cost of heat treatment and in
today’s competitive scenario, it is extremely important to run the heat treatment
operations in an energy efficient way to save every penny that can be saved and gain a
competitive advantage. I have compiled a list of ‘ideas’ for saving the energy cost of
heat treatment.

Many of the ideas listed below may be already known to you, but even if you find one
new idea and act upon it, you can make a significant saving in your energy cost. So here
we go!

1. Carry Out Energy Audit of the Heat Treatment Shop

Mapping of the current energy consumption of the heat treatment shop can be
the foundation of the energy saving drive. The audit may find some obvious
sources of wastage of energy. The audit findings can also be used to bench mark
against the best in the industry. Energy audit will thus indicate the possible areas
where energy cost saving opportunities exist.

2. Use well insulated heat treatment furnaces

The heat treatment furnaces should be well insulated to minimize heat losses.
The skin temperature of the furnace is an indicator of the effectiveness of the
insulation. As the furnace becomes older, the quality of insulation diminishes and
heat losses increase. Regular maintenance and refurbishment of the insulation
helps to minimize the heat losses

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3. Use the right source of energy (electricity / gas / furnace oil / HSD)
Depending upon the application (rough forging / rough machined part / metal to
be heat treated), operating temperature range, temperature accuracy required
and the cost economics of each source of energy, the appropriate source of
energy needs to be selected.

4. Use of waste heat recovery system

A lot of heat energy is carried out of the furnace by flue gases. This heat energy
can be recovered to a large extent by using a waste heat recovery system. The
recovered heat can be put to use in a variety of ways including: pre-heating of
combustion air, pre-heating of the charge, pre-heating of the fuel oil, etc.

5. Using high efficiency burners

The burner technology has improved significantly in the recent years. Selection of
the right type of high efficiency burners and the correct rating of the burners is
crucial to achieve maximum energy efficiency of the heat treatment furnace.

6. Fine tuning of burners

Fine tuning of the burners and the combustion control system significantly
contributes to the energy efficiency of the heat treatment furnaces. Take the help
of professionals to fine tune the combustion control system including the burners.

7. Ensuring complete combustion of fuels

Ensuring complete combustion of the fuel ensures high energy efficiency of the
furnace. The complete combustion of the fuels is accomplished by pre-heating the
fuel, atomizing the fuel, by using the slightly excessive air to fuel ratio, by adding
fuel additives, etc.

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8. Using Fuel Additives
Fuel additives are designed to achieve complete combustion of the fuel thereby
increasing the fuel efficiency of the heat treatment furnaces. A variety of
proprietary fuel additives are available in the market.

9. High emissivity ceramic coatings

High emissivity ceramic coatings on the hot face of the refractory lining help in
faster heat up of the charge, improved refractory life and reduced heat losses.

10. Use furnaces at rated load capacity

If the furnaces are underloaded (below the rated load capacity), the energy
efficiency of the furnace is adversely affected. However, overloading of the heat
treatment furnaces above its rated capacity is not recommended due to chances
of achieving non-uniform results as well as safety concerns.

11. Using residual heat energy of previous process

The residual energy of the previous process can be used utilized for subsequent
heat treatment process. For example, the residual heat of the hot rolled coils can
be used for the subsequent annealing process. Or the residual heat of hot forging
operation can be used for the subsequent normalizing or hardening process.

12. Optimize soaking time

For heat treatment processes such as normalizing, annealing, tempering, etc;
thumb rules such as ‘soak for 1 hour per inch of section thickness’ are generally
followed. However, these thumb rules need not be followed blindly. The soaking
times can be optimized (reduced) by running trials and arriving at the minimum
required soaking time to achieve the desired metallurgical properties.

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13. Minimize / eliminate need for grinding allowance on carburized parts
Please check whether there is a room for reducing the grinding allowance on case
carburised parts. You can also reduce the grinding allowance by controlling the
distortion. Reduction in grinding allowance will mean less case depth to be
achieved in case carburising. Consequently, the case hardening time can be
reduced and energy can be saved.

14. Optimize the peak electricity demand (use a Power Demand Management
software)
Electricity bills depend not only on the number of units of electricity consumed
but also on the peak demand. In most cases, peak demand is calculated as the
highest average demand in any 15 minute time span during the billing period.
Installation of energy-optimization system manages all the electricity consuming
equipment, including heat treatment furnaces, air conditioners, washing
machines, conveyors, EOT cranes, plant lighting, etc; and temperorily shuts down
or supplies less current to certain less critical equipment (as per pre-programed
software) and thereby avoids crossing the set threshold of peak demand.

15. Air Circulation

The heat transmission from the heat source to the charge takes place either by
radiation or by convection. Good circulation of atmosphere inside the furnace
ensures rapid transfer of heat energy to the charge by convection mechanism and
hence improves the thermal efficiency of the heat treatment process.

16. Veneering of the hot face of refractory lining

Veneering is a process wherein Veneer modules (low thermal mass insulation
material) are applied on the hot face of the existing refractory lining. These
veneer modules made from compressed ceramic fiber blanket strips have very
low thermal conductivity that results into higher temperature differential
between veneer module and the refractory lining.

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17. Magnetic Treatment of Fuel
Each hydrocarbon molecule consists of protons and electrons which are
electrically charged particles. Magnetic fields can alter the orientation of these
particles and hence the structure of the molecules in such a way which enhances
the ability of the molecules to burn completely. Complete burning of the fuels
increases the efficiency of the fuels.

18. Minimize open leakages

During opening and closing of the furnace doors a lot of heat energy is lost. By
minimizing the door opening and closing time, the energy efficiency of the heat
treatment furnace can be significantly improved. The door should be opened to
the minimum required extent to allow removal or loading of the charge. The
speed of the mechanism for loading or unloading of the charge (eg: a bogie or a
set of rollers, or a charging machine) should be increased to the extent possible.
Similarly the speed of opening and closing of the furnace door should be as fast as
practically possible. Broken or damaged doors should be repaired. It should be
ensured that when the furnace doors are shut, there is no significant leakage of
heat through the gap between the door and the furnace.

19. Optimize the process temperature

Use optimum process temperatures for heat treatment. In many cases, the
process temperature (eg: Normalizing temperature or Annealing temperature) is
maintained unnecessarily at a higher level as compared to what is technically
required. It does not yield any technical advantages. In case of low alloy high
hardenability steels, higher hardening (austenitizing) temperature causes higher
as quenched hardness which in turn necessitates higher tempering temperature.
A small reduction of process temperature by just 10 or 15 degree C can contribute
to significant savings in energy consumption. However, care should be taken not
to reduce the temperature to such an extent that the desired metallurgical
properties are not achieved.

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 20. Maintaining correct amount of furnace drought
Negative Pressures due to air infiltration affecting air fuel ratio control and
problems of cold zones and non-uniform charge temperatures. Positive pressures
(Ex-filtration) – Problems of leaping out of flames, overheating of refractories and
burning out of ducts.

21. Pre-heating of fuel oils

The fuel efficiency of heat treatment furnace is significantly improved if the fuel is
pre-heated before feeding to the burners. The combustion air can be preheated
using the heat recovered from the flue gases.

I hope you have found some of the above mentioned ideas to be new and worth
implementing. In case you need any further information or clarification, please do write
to me.

To your success!

Pankaj Deval
CEO- htcourses.com
support@htcourses.com