Analysis of potential waste heat recovery from a stenter in a textile plant

Abstract

The textile sector, an important economic driving force in Antioquia, Colombia, uses great quantities of thermal energy mainly produced by coal combustion, which holds enormous potential for recovery. One of the most common processes in a textile plant is heat setting, which uses a significant amount of thermal energy to adjust the properties of fabrics, such as shrinking, stiffness, pull strength, width, and stretching. In this study, we calculate the mass and energy balances of a stenter and propose a system to recover the energy available in its exhaust gases. The energy recovery potential in this heat setting process is 800.97 kW, which represents 87.2% of the total input energy. Additionally, we evaluate different heat exchangers to recover the available heat and present criteria to select them. Finally, thermosyphons, whose thermal efficiency was theoretically determined here, offer a promising alternative for heat recovery from actual stenters.

Novel waste heat and oil recovery system in the finishing treatment of the textile process for cleaner production with economic improvement

“…Cacua et al proposed a system for recovering usable energy from the exhaust gas discharge of the stentering process, and they calculated the mass and energy balances for each heat exchanger to determine the optimal heat exchanger that can achieve the maximum amount of recovered heat energy. 9 The calculation results indicated that up to 30.1% energy savings can be achieved using a thermalsyphon heat exchanger. Pulat et al used a wasteheat recovery system to recover waste heat generated in the dyeing process, and they calculated the energy consumption by conducting a thermodynamic analysis.…”

“…As a result, the total energy consumption of stentering process is 918.65 kW, and about 800 kW of waste heat is able to recover, which reduces total amount of energy consumption about 30.1%. 9 Rossane et al developed the heat and mass transfer in a porous media model to simulate stenetring process and investigated the influence of ambient conditions on the performance of the stentering process. 12 As a result of simulation, the natural gas consumption increased by 5.3% when the simulation represented the operation of the stenter in cold air and that recovery of exhaust air saved 19% to 64% of natural gas.…”