Thermodynamic optimization opportunities for the recovery and utilization of residual energy and heat in China's iron and steel industry: A case study

• Material flows and energy flows in iron and steel industry are introduced.
• Recovery and utilization of residual energy and heat plays an important role.
• A case study of hot blast stove flue gas sensible heat recovery is presented.
• Thermodynamic optimization for the system is performed.
• Energy saving, profit, and CO2 emission reduction improvements are obvious.

Analyses and optimizations of material flows and energy flows in iron and steel industry in the world are introduced in this paper. It is found that the recovery and utilization of residual energy and heat (RUREH) plays an important role for energy saving and CO2 emission reduction no matter what method is used. Although the energy cascade utilization principle is carried out, the efficiency of RUREH in China's iron and steel industry (CISI) is only about 30%–50%, while the international advanced level is higher than 90%, such as USA, Japan, Sweden, etc. An important reason for the low efficiency of RUREH in CISI is that someone ignores the thermodynamic optimization opportunities for the energy recovery or utilization equipment, such as electricity production via waste heat boiler, sintering ore sensible heat recovery, heat transfer through heat exchangers, etc. A case study of hot blast stove flue gas sensible heat recovery and utilization is presented to illustrate the viewpoint above. The results show that before the heat conductance distribution optimization, the system can realize energy saving 76.2 kgce/h, profit 68.9 yuan/h, and CO2 emission reduction 187.2 kg/h. While after the heat conductance distribution optimization, the system can realize energy saving 88.8 kgce/h, profit 92.5 yuan/h, and CO2 emission reduction 218.2 kg/h, which are, respectively, improved by 16.5%, 34.2% and 16.5% than those before optimization. Thermodynamic optimization from the single equipment to the whole system of RUREH is a vital part in the future energy conservation work in CISI.