Heat recovery in sanitary-ware industry applied to water and energy saving by multi-effect distillation. (10th March 2019) - Cuviella-Suárez, Carlos
Abstract: Sanitary-ware industry, as a sub-sector in the ceramic industry, is a great consumer of energy and water, although there are some opportunities to reduce the global consumption, especially for factories based on resin molds technology. This research aims to show the way to reduce drastically water consumption by recovering waste heat into a multi-effect distillation system to re-use most of the flushing water. This solution improves both, the environmental and economic performance of this industry. The proposed configuration is a multi-effect distillation (MED) adapted to run with recovered heat from the kiln exhausting. The efficiency of the system is improved by recovering the heat of the gas mixture leaving the first effect in the pre-heater of the feeding water. The research lays on the computerized simulation of the coupled systems run under different parameters. Mathematical and thermodynamic models have been developed to simulate the behavior of the system. The obtained results show the optimal configuration depending on the thermal variables which could achieve up to almost 92% of the needed water against conventional technology. The system can be applicable to new or existing factories based on resin molds technology and this research may contribute to reduce consumption of resources and thus, the environmental impact. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: Water consumption reduction in a sanitary-ware factory is presented and validated. Heat recovery from kiln provides energy for the water treatment by MED distillation. Water management accounting as an extension to environmental management accounting. Proposed method produces reductions of resources and economic improvements.