Waste heat recovery from casting process at high temperature in the aluminium industry

Semester/Master project
Fall 2024

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

Semester/Master project in collaboration with Novelis company

Objectives

The goal is to simulate the heat transfer phenomena and the waste heat recovery potential in the aluminium solidification at high temperatures.

Profile

  • Interest in heat transfer theory, energy conversion systems and energy integration method.
  • Knowledge on heat transfer in high temperature energy systems (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 waste heat recovery available and the process constraints.
  2. Proposition of an alternative heat recovery system based on chemical recovery or steam generation.
  3. Heat transfer modeling and simulation using Ansys software.
  4. Energy integration and exergy analysis of the heat recovery processes.
  5. Estimation of the techno-economic and environmental impact of the proposed system.
  6. Identification of the opportunities for renewable energy integration.

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 Francois Maréchal, francois.marechal@epfl.ch Dareen Dardor, dareen.dardor@epfl.ch