Energy integration of an aluminium casting house for reduced fuel consumption and combined heat and power production.

Master project
Fall 2024

Contact: Daniel Flórez-Orrego, daniel.florezorrego@epfl.ch, Dareen Dardor, dareen.dardor@epfl.ch

Master project in collaboration with Novelis company (internship possibility)

Objectives

  • To conceive and design the best approach(es) to recover waste heat from the furnace stacks in an aluminium casthouse (mainly from melter furnaces) to supply the sow-drier furnaces, based on the analysis of the heat transfer phenomena (residence time, interfaces, temperature profiles, operating cycles).
  • To identify the additional waste heat recovery potential for producing combined heat and power, which could be used by Novelis and a future district heating systems in Sierre city (VS).

Profile

  • Interest in heat transfer theory, energy conversion systems and energy integration method.
  • Knowledge on heat transfer in high temperature energy systems (furnaces and waste heat recovery) and fluid mechanics.
  • Some knowledge on R, Python and Lua is desirable. Experience with Ansys software is also recommendable.

Project plan

The study includes:

  1. Identification of the process constraints and operative conditions (cycle times, temperature profiles, energy consumption) and waste heat sources available in the casting house.
  2. Proposition of a suitable energy integration approach between the melting furnace stacks and other furnaces and appliances.
  3. Heat transfer modeling and simulation using Ansys software and validation using existing experimental data.
  4. Interaction with Novelis for the proposition of a simplified predictive strategy to correlate the heat transfer coefficient and other relevant parameters to the operating conditions of the sow-drier and melting furnaces.
  5. Estimation of the techno-economic and environmental impact of the proposed system.
  6. Identification of opportunities for additional waste heat valorization for combined heat and power production.

Observation

The project is related to the Net Zero Lab in collaboration with Novelis Sierre and HES-SO Valais and funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

Sources

See more at: https://www.novelis.com/net-zero-lab-valais/

Supervisors

Daniel Flórez-Orrego, daniel.florez.orrego@epfl.ch Dareen Dardor, dareen.dardor@epfl.ch François Maréchal, francois.marechal@epfl.ch