Enertime’s first ORC ORCHID module will be installed in the FMGC foundry in Chateaubriand/Soudan in Western France. The unit will be placed at the outflow of the combustion chamber of a cupola furnace to recover waste heat from the process and transform it into electricity.
The cupola is a foundry equipment producing cast iron from scrap iron and coke. The process emits large amounts of CO that is burnt in a combustion chamber and then cooled down for flue gas treatment.
The 1 MW ORC unit is connected to the flue gas cooling system to recover the heat via thermal oil at 200°C. The cupola furnace has a production capacity of 20 tons per hour with a maximum capacity of 30 tons per hour and runs 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The amount of heat that will be recovered is 5 to 6 MWth. The power generated by the ORC unit will be injected into the foundry grid for 5,000 MWh per year. The ORC unit will make the existing cooling system redundant, saving another 100 MWh a year.
Enertime ORC unit was designed to make its installation in an industrial environment easier. The design of the module focuses on energetic performance combined with reliability and ease of operation.
The French Technical Center of the Foundry industry (CTIF) and the engineering department of the foundry took part in the project together with the cupola furnace and the cooling system manufacturers.
The Company TOTAL and the National Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME) will provide financial support to the project.
The goals of the project are to:
- Validate the conception, building and on-site operation of the ORCHID unit for a significant operation period.
- Study the impact of the unit on the industrial process and implement appropriate corrective measures.
- Confirm the economic relevance of such a waste heat recovery system on the short and middle terms.
