Maximizing Energy Efficiency in Industrial Furnaces

Whether you are looking to reduce costs and improve internal processes or lessen your company’s carbon footprint, there are ways to minimize energy consumption in your industrial furnace. Natural gas is at the highest price it has been since early 2014. In a time where the nation is enduring a supply and demand deficit, gas prices are forecasted to remain increasing through the rest of the year, and into 2023, making this the time to focus on understanding and improving your operation.

Energy in industrial furnace systems can easily be lost due to equipment inefficiencies and limitations in mechanical and thermal processes. Ways to minimize energy consumption in industrial furnaces include:

• Combustion Components
• Combustion System Retrofits
• Refractory Cleaning and Maintenance
• High Temperature Ceramic Coatings

Combustion Components

Inspecting air flows, filters and control mechanisms ensures the combustion system is operating efficiently. Burners, regulators and control valves can degrade, or even become damaged, after daily wear at high operating temperatures. The inspection of burners for dirt, debris, excessive oxidation or warping is crucial as these components get the most wear in the combustion system.

Combustion tuning adjusts the sequencing of combustor stages, fuel flow and air flow (within set limits) to safely optimize performance. Tuning is especially important when the atmospheric temperatures change during different seasons causing your combustion systems to operate outside of their intended range.

Combustion System Retrofits

When it comes to industrial furnaces, natural gas consumption is one of the largest contributors to high energy costs. A furnace combustion system upgrade benefits the operation by providing new burner and gas train components and enhanced controls for further refinement of your process. A newly retrofitted system will feed the burner the precise amount of gas needed, every time, preventing costly temperature overshoots and excess fuel usage.

Refractory Cleaning and Maintenance

One of the most important steps to energy efficiency is keeping the heat inside the furnace. Residual slag, large bottom heals, and metal fins are all potential ways to lose heat, causing the furnace to consume more energy during its run cycle. Having an engineered refractory design in support of your operational needs can hold your industrial furnace to tighter temperature tolerances and improve refractory life. Therefore, having trained professionals clean the unit is a great solution to maximizing energy.

High Temperature Ceramic Coatings

Having an industrial furnace covered with a high temperature ceramic coating can extend the refractory life in your system, but also has other energy saving benefits because of its high infrared reflectivity. Whether the industrial furnace is lined with brick, castables or ceramic fiber blanket, the ceramic coating will keep the heat inside the unit, reducing the amount of energy it takes to heat up and cool down.

As we progress through the year, with gas prices still on the rise, it is a great time to focus on the operation of your industrial furnace. By correcting inefficiencies in mechanical and thermal processes, energy consumption can be minimized, reducing the carbon footprint and cost to operate.