Challenge:
Fuel costs are driven higher in industrial combustion processes when thermal efficiency is poor and when expensive fuels are used to a greater degree than necessary. This can be due to the fact that combustion operations are made difficult because of normal load swings from product mix and production rate changes, by unit fouling, and because of emissions constraints. Additional challenges occur due to the fact that many boilers, heaters, and furnaces are fired with lower cost waste and off-gas fuels that vary in supply and in Btu per volume. Industrial sites wish to maximize the use of waste and off-gas fuel supplies, but the variability and handling difficulties associated with these Btu sources make it a challenge.
Solution: Lowering combustion fuel costs requires a focus on thermal efficiency, but the greater opportunity for an industrial site is typically to maximize the use of lower cost waste and alternative fuel sources. Many industrial facilities produce and/or have access to some type of low cost Btu source that can be utilized in boilers, heaters, and furnaces. Examples include biomass (waste wood), refinery off-gases, blast furnace gas, coke oven gas, excess hydrogen, tire derived fuel, and petcoke. When the use of these fuels is successfully maximized, fuel costs are reduced dramatically. Emerson helps industrial sites maximize low cost fuel use by mitigating process issues and implementing Btu based combustion control. Emerson’s SmartProcess® solutions for combustion compensate in real-time for variable fuel Btu to stabilize heat release and allow the use of low cost fuel to be increased. Swapping low cost Btu for expensive fossil fuel Btu results in large fuel savings for industrial site owners
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