Research Information System
Thesis Type: Postgraduate
Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, Turkey
Approval Date: 2017
Thesis Language: English
Student: Ayça Usta Benli
Supervisor: GÖKSEL NİYAZİ DEMİRER
Abstract:The main objective of this study was to develop Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) measures for the ferrous foundry sector. For this purpose, environmental performance evaluation and benchmarking studies were conducted in six ferrous foundries. The environmental performance was calculated by using environmental performance indicators of specific energy and water use, metal yield and sand regeneration ratio. The gap between the benchmarks and actual performances revealed the improvement potential. The results indicated that specific energy consumption can be improved by 27% and 54% for iron and steel foundries respectively, which leads to decrease carbon emissions by 140,918 ton/ year. The water consumption was two times more than the benchmarks and 38,342 m3 of water can be saved annually. The improvement potential for sand recovery ratio depends upon the moulding type and sand regeneration technique. The application of thermal sand regeneration will decrease the waste foundry sand by 38,018 ton. With regard to metal yield, the results showed that it can be increased by 21% (for iron) and 5% (for steel). To improve the environmental performance, 21 options obtained from literature were discussed with the company representatives and 12 options were recommended: closing the furnace cover, using shredded scrap, preheating the charge, installing waste heat recovery systems, using more energy efficient lighting systems, installing automatic pouring systems, using casting simulation software, applying lost foam/ investment casting, using green sand, installing thermal sand regeneration system, using closed loop mechanical water chillers instead of cooling towers and reducing sand cooling requirements.