ABSTRACT
Waste heat recovery is key for the improvement of several industrial sectors. It has the potential to be used as an energy source and, therefore, to reduce the current industrial energy consumption. The ceramic industry, in particular, encompasses significant thermal processes (the firing and drying) which generate substantial waste heat. This work studies the potential of waste heat recovery solutions for a ceramic floor tile plant. Direct re-use of hot air streams from kiln cooling zones as kiln combustion air is considered, as well as its use as drying agent and combustion air in dryers. The proposed strategies achieve natural gas savings up to 33% in the plant, reducing fuel consumption by 25–29% in kilns, by 44% in a dryer, and avoiding fuel consumption in the other dryer. Moreover, the payback period of all these strategies has been estimated as 0.12 years, which proves the attractiveness of waste heat recovery.
