Optimising thermal energy recovery, utilisation and management in the process industries

The persistent increase in the price of energy, the clamour to preserve our environment from the harmful effects of the anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels and the need to conserve these rapidly depleting fuels has resulted in the need for the deployment of industry best practices in energy conservation through energy efficiency improvement processes like the waste heat recovery technique. In 2006, it was estimated that approximately 20.66% of energy in the UK is consumed by industry as end-user, with the process industries (chemical industries, metal and steel industries, food and drink industries) consuming about 407 TWh, 2010 value stands at 320.28 TWh (approximately 18.35%). Due to the high number of food and drink industries in the UK, these are estimated to consume about 36% of this energy with a waste heat recovery potential of 2.8 TWh. This work presents the importance of waste heat recovery in the process industries in general, and in the UK food industry in particular, with emphasis on the fryer section of the crisps manufacturing process, which has been identified as one of the energy-intensive food industries with high waste heat recovery potential. The work proposes the use of a dual heat source ORC system for the recovery and conversion of the waste heat from the fryer section of a crisps manufacturing plant to electricity. The result, obtained through modelling and simulation, shows that the proposed technology can produce about 92% of the daily peak electricity need of the plant which is currently 216 kW. Also, the economic analysis shows that the proposed technology is viable (even at an inflation rate of 5.03% and discounted rate of 6%), with a payback period of approximately three years and net present value of over £2.2 million if the prices of electricity and carbon is at an average value of £0.16 and £13.77 respectively throughout the 30 years service life of the plant. The life cycle assessment study shows that the proposed technology can reduce the CO2 emission by 139,580 kg/year if the electricity produced is used to displace that which would have been produced from a conventional coal-fired power plant.