Economic impacts of optimizing energy recovery in clinker cooler using clinker cooler bed as a case study

Abstract

This paper tends to analyze one critical area "pyro system" in cement production process where energy is been lose and ways on how some of these energies can be recovered back into the system and also analyzing the cost benefits. This led to the modeling of a clinker cooler known as "test rig". This model was used to study the operating system of the existing running plant. The test rig was designed using SolidWorks Computer Aided Design software based on the geometrical dimensions adopted into the test rig design. The test rig was scaled down to a ratio 25:1, with the existing clinker cooler been twenty-five and the test rig is one. The clinker cooler bed height varies from 0.3, 0.4 and 0.6 m. The quantities of energy transfer are dependent upon the optima clinker bed height (0.6 m) which resulted into improved clinker outlet of 76.4°C. A cost benefits on recovery energy efficiency on the existing running plants can be translated to a financial gain of $12,092 by improving the clinker bed height from 0.45 m to 0.6 m with expected clinker output in 24 h is 6,000 tons/day.