Estimation of Waste Heat from Exhaust Gases of an Iron Ore Pelletizing Plant in Iran

Waste heat from the exhaust gases of Golgohar iron ore pelletizing Plant, in Sirjan, Iran, was studied using energy analysis based on input data extracted from measurements in a 5-month period. Constituents considered as inputs were fresh air, natural gas, green and indurated pellets, while the exhaust flue gas and hot indurated pellets were served as the output. Contribution of each part to energy production and/or consumption was separately determined, in addition to the energy produced from burning of natural gas and pyrite and magnetite oxidation to hematite. Special consideration was devoted to the energy leaving the furnace through exhaust flue gases as the main source of waste heat in addition to the latent heat of water vapor, the energy stored in materials such as indurated pellets, rail pallets and cooling water, and radiation from the furnace body. It was observed that the dominant portion of waste heat is in the form of thermal energy carried by flue gases generated from combustion which are released into the atmosphere. The present study can be considered as a case study for a specific plant which gives insights on how to handle and analysis the waste heat recovery of such plans in general.