Abstract

Paper production is one of the most energy intensive industrial processes. The use of waste heat is very important for energy efficiency improvement in paper industry. This paper deals with methods for calculation of potentials of waste heat generated in paper/board production process. For that purpose, the material and heat balance of the cardboard machine at Umka Cardboard Mill has been determined. Field measurements were conducted in order to define the unknown values of process parameters used for calculation in the balance equations and modelling. The focus was given to the cardboard drying section, which consumes most of the energy supplied to the machine. Additional aim of the work presented in the paper was to evaluate the specific energy consumption and the thermal efficiency of all individual energy units within the machine's drying section. The results indicate two main sources of waste heat: waste heat released to the atmosphere with the discharge air from the present waste heat recovery system (14,380 kW); and waste heat released into the hall from the machine and extracted by the hall ventilation system (4,430 kW). Waste heat from both sources is characterized by fairly low temperatures 58-75 0С and fairly high moisture content (30-40 g/kg). The waste heat can be partly utilized for preheating the fresh air in cardboard drying process, saving up to 13 % of steam consumption. The specific heat consumption and specific steam consumption (consumption per tonne of produced cardboard) of the machine was 1,490 kWh/t and 1.4 t/t, respectively. The thermal efficiency of drying section and coating drying section was 55.6 % and 33.6 %, respectively. All these figures imply necessity for further waste heat utilization with the aim of improving the efficiency of energy use.