A technical note cupola efficiency improvement by increasing air blast temperature

Cupola efficiency has always been connected with foundry improvement and development. One of these important improvements has been the introduction of pre-heated air for coal coke combustion. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the results obtained when increasing its temperature: energy savings in terms of coke consumption, production capacity growth and silicon losses. Nevertheless, this energy savings cannot be realised without some technical limitations concerning different material characteristics. In addition, costs should be considered in order to achieve the adequate balance between efficiency improvement and cost savings. This analysis has also been carried out and shown in this paper. Results presented in this work helped to reduce the coke consumption by approximately 5%, resulting in considerable cost savings. Also, temperatures ranging 600-700 degreesC have never been used before, in order to recover the energy contained in the exhaust gases. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.