A Comparison of Modern Heating Methods to Reduce a Heat Treater’s CO2 Carbon Footprint

Abstract

Several governments across the world have recently stepped up their action to fight climate change. Initiatives include from clean energy production to efficient buildings and reduced emissions from industry. The manufacturing industry will need to examine methods to reduce its carbon footprint, especially across energy-intensive sectors such as heat treatment. This paper explains and explores the latest developments in energy management in heat treatment with a specific focus on electrical heating and associated digital tools. In this paper, developments in IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) and SCR (silicon-controlled rectifier) technology will be compared as energy-efficient alternatives to variable reactance transformers (VRT’s) for electric vacuum furnaces.