Investigation on energy conservation in thermoplastics production

The possibility of energy savings by means of minimizing fuel consumption in polyamide-6, i.e. nylon-6, production is investigated. Reducing energy consumption for processes with condensate and exhaust gases heat recovery in energy management studies presents a growth of process efficiency and contemporary decreasing of thermal pollution. The condensate heat recovery option results in fuel savings of 8.2%. At the same time, the thermal pollution is diminished by 89.3%. Using an economizer and condensate heat recovery for feed water preheating, the anthracite consumption is reduced by 16.91%, and the flue gases are cooled 132.8°. If an air preheater is applied for combustion air preheating together with condensate heat recovery, the fuel savings becomes 15.3%. Now, the flue gases temperature is reduced 170°. In the system, including boiler feed tank, economizer and air preheater, the total fuel savings reached 19.4%, while the flue gases exhaust temperature diminished 195°.