Technical possibility of using the heat of exhaust gases from glass furnaces was considered at the Novosibirsk State Technical University (NETI). The work was carried out within the framework of the study "Assessment of the technical feasibility and economic efficiency of the organization of reducing the use of electric energy from a monopoly supplier through the use of heat from exhaust gases from glass furnaces or own generation".
"Glass is boiled in special furnaces at high temperatures and the exhaust gases give a lot of heat. The partner company made a request: is it possible to use this heat in some way? We have proposed three options with an economic justification. One of them is based on the use of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC), a system that can convert heat into electricity. We considered two more options — the installation of our own generation and the possibility of a gas piston unit (GPU), which will also generate electricity," said Denis Sinelnikov, Candidate of Technical Sciences, an Associate professor of the Department of Thermal Power Plants at NSTU-NETI.
The organic Rankine cycle uses gratuitous heat, the costs in this version are only for the maintenance of the installation itself (operation and repair), the revenue part is electricity generation.
"We have developed and calculated the thermal scheme of the installation operating on this cycle, determined the maximum power that can be obtained from the exhaust gases — it turned out about 2 megawatts of electricity; found out the cost of the installation and calculated the payback period. The calculation of the project's economic efficiency indicators for various implementation options has shown that the only cost—effective option in the current conditions is the option with ORC generation," Denis Sinelnikov explained.
As part of the research work, the following were prepared: calculation of the potential thermal performance of the flue gas heat recovery system; options for the technological process of flue gas heat recovery using additional equipment in the form of modernization of the gas-air tract system, power supply systems of the enterprise, installation of new equipment for a specific glass furnace; composition of the equipment for the technological process of flue gas heat recovery according to the proposed options; calculation of the performance and type of equipment used in the enterprise's power supply system.
All options for using heat from glass furnaces with a detailed economic justification are provided to the partner company for further decision-making.