Energy Use and Energy Efficiency Increase in Non-Ferreous Metallurgy

Abstract

The special feature of non-ferrous metallurgy is that the chemical energy of the raw materials constitutes the major (and sometimes even greatest) part of the energy supply. It was the study of the energy efficiency of the processes in this industry that led to improvements in the techniques for drawing up and analyzing energy balances. Advantages of the methodology developed by the author are most vividly revealed in studies on the processes of non-ferrous metallurgy, particularly:

• drawing up the complete energy balance that takes into account the chemical energy of raw material and other non-combustibles, the exergy value is indicated for each energy flow;

• use of the ideal and idealized analogs of actual processes for determining their relative energy efficiency;

• application of the exergy criterion when sharing the energy consumption for realization of the complex processes.