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Engineering application of exergy analysis: Gas recovery system in steel industry

Abstract:

The Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) for steel making produces a stream of waste gas at high temperature which contains carbon monoxide. Accordingly, its proper recovery entails important energy savings in the steelmaking process. Exergy analysis is applied in this paper to analyze a system designed to use both thermal (in order to produce steam) and chemical energy of this gas. The system is characterized by transient operation and storing of both gas and steam. Actual plant data is used to calculate time evolution of exergy flows and irreversibilities. Besides, integral indicators are defined for characterizing the whole recovery cycle. The analysis provides important conclusions for improving plant operation, in order to maximize recovered exergy.