Ten ways to Save Energy Cost

in Foundries
Prosanto Pal
Senior Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI),
New Delhi
E-mail: prosanto@teri.res.in

Improve power factor

Always check the power factor (p.f.) in the electricity bill.
Poor p.f. not only increases the penalty in the electricity bill
but also the energy charges, since non-domestic electricity
is billed on kVAh . If the recorded p.f. is below 0.99, there
is scope to improve it by connecting a capacitor bank, with
appropriate capacitors, at the main incomer and at load end.
Installation of Automatic Power Factor Correction (APFC)
system (Fig 1) is recommended to improve the p.f. close
to unity. The investment has a fast payback as can be seen
from Table-1.
Table-1: Power Factor Improvement
Parameter Unit Value
Contract demand kVA 850
Existing p.f. 0.93
Proposed p.f. 1.00
Monetary savings Rs lakh/year 5.76
Fig 1: Automatic Power Factor Correction (APFC) system
Investment in capacitor bank Rs lakh 1.25
Simple payback period year 0.8 The SEC can be high due to inefficient furnace design or
Optimise furnace operating practices improper operating practices. Replacement of inefficient
furnace with efficient new furnace is discussed in the next
Induction furnace
section. SEC may be high because of a mismatch between
Install separate energy meter in induction furnace, if not the metal melted and mould capacity. This results in holding
installed. The specific energy consumption (SEC) data must of the liquid metal between the pouring cycles. Optimization
be monitored, preferably in every melt, and correlated with of the furnace operation to avoid holding of liquid melt gives
the tapping temperature. SEC can be calculated using the significant energy savings without incurring any investment.
following formulae: A case-study highlighting that SEC depends on the skill of
the furnace operator is given below:

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Case Study 1
SEC depends on the skill of the operator
A foundry had a total of four furnace operators. They took
different shifts. Two operators i.e. Operator 1 and Operator
2 were experienced and it reflected in their operation, their
respective SEC for a sample of 26 heats was 588 and 584
kWh per tonne. The other two operators were young and
new to induction furnace operation hence had slightly higher
SEC of 606 and 616 kWh per tonne respectively (see Fig 2).
Cupola
The energy efficiency of a cupola is denoted in terms of the
amount of coke consumed per tonne of metal charged. It
is better to calculate efficiency of cupola on charged coke
(including boosters and burnt coke, if added) and charged
metallics (pig iron, scrap, foundry returns including ferro-
silicon and ferro-manganese, if added).The efficiency is
denoted either as a ratio or as a percentage.
Fig 2: Variation in SEC with operator
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Maintain proper record of each heat and prepare a production
summary as explained below:
Maintain proper records of each heat
Maintain a log-book for every heat recording every detail
viz. bed height, weight of coke required for bed (this may
vary with the density of different supply lots). Bed light-up
time, time taken for coke ignition, time taken and number of
charges to fill up the stack at the beginning to be recorded.
Any interruption during melting, its cause and remedy and
time loss due to it, should be noted. End time of heat i.e.
blower off, last tapping, drain out, bottom door opened and
bed dropped, etc. must be meticulously recorded. Each and
every charge break-up should be noted.
A production summary report should to be prepared the next
day. The report should preferably have details of:
w Duration of blower operation
w Coke quality
w Bed coke weight
w Number of charges
w Total metallics charged (incl. FeSi/FeMn) and operated DBC results in the following benefits:
w Total coke charged (incl. boosters) w Coke consumption reduced by 25%
w Total limestone charged w Metal temperature increased by 50oC
w Weight of good castings w Higher melting rate for the same cupola diameter.
w Weight of rejected castings As an example, the coke consumption and melting rate
achieved in two foundries that replaced their conventional
w General observations
cupola with TERI designed DBC of 18 inch diameter is
Adopt energy efficient furnace provided in Table-3.
Induction furnace Table-3: Cupola Performance afterAdoption of TERI
If the SEC of the induction furnace is much higher than the designed DBC [Pal P et al, 2014]
standard (typically 650 kWh/tonne for small 150 kW/150 Foundry A Foundry B
kg furnace) it is economical to replace the existing furnace Before After Before After
with a new energy efficient (EE) furnace. Cost-benefit Bed coke, kg 180 160 263 150
calculation of the measure is provided in Table-2. Charged coke, % 9.03 7.64 10.91 8.33
Table-2: Replacement of Inefficient Furnace with New Melting rate, tph 1.13 1.10 1.57 1.85
EE Furnace The other benefits of the new DBC were hassle free furnace
Parameter Unit Old New operation, higher molten metal temperature and more
Furnace Furnace consistent chemistry of the molten metal. A photograph of
one of the installations is given in Fig 3.
Type - SCR SCR
Capacity kW 150 175
Crucible kg 150 150
SEC kWh/tonne 939 700
Production tonne/year 240 240
To t a l a n n u a l kWh/year 2,25,336 1,68,000
consumption
Total melting cost Rs lakh/ 14.64 10.92
year
Electricity cost Rs/kWh 6.50 6.50
Monetary savings Rs lakh/ 3.73
year
Investment cost Rs lakh 12.28
Simple payback year 3.3
period

Divided blast cupola

Adoption of divided blast cupola (DBC) could improve the
energy efficiency of the cupola furnace. A well-designed
Fig 3: Conventional cupola and DBC

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Install lid mechanism in induction furnace provided in Table-5.
It is recommended to install a lid mechanism for induction Table -5: Replacement of Raw Water with EE Pump
furnace to avoid heat losses. About 19 kWh per heat can be Parameter Unit Value
saved for a small sized furnace. Lid cover will also lower
Flow rate m3/hour 58.8
the surrounding making it comfortable for the operators.
A lid mechanism for induction furnace fabricated locally Head m 24
is shown in Fig 4. A typical cost-benefit of the measure is Existing pump kW 6.5
provided in Table-4. New EE pump kW 5.3
Table-4: Installation of Lid Mechanism Efficiency existing pump % 23
Parameter Unit Value Efficiency of new pump % 65
Total heats per day Nos. 12 Annual operating hours hour 7,200
Energy saving per heat kWh/heat 19 Energy savings kWh/year 8,640
Energy savings kWh/year 67,704 Monetary savings Rs lakh /year 0.64
Cost savings Rs lakh/year 5.0 Investment Rs lakh 0.60
Investment Rs lakh 2.0 Simple payback period year 0.9
Simple Payback Period year 0.4 An old pump and new EE pump is shown in Fig 5.

Fig 5: A new EE pump along with the old pump as standby

Install VFD based PMSM air compressor

Fig 4: Locally fabricated lid mechanism
Adopt energy efficient pumps
Several water circulation pumps are used in induction
furnace for raw water (panel cooling) and soft water (coil
cooling). It is recommended to replace old inefficient water
pumps with energy efficient pumps [Pal P and Nandgopal
E, 2016]. Cost-benefit of replacing a raw water pump is
If the air demand fluctuates heavily, variable frequency drive
(VFD) or invertor based air compressor is recommended.
By installing new air compressor with VFD and permanent
magnetic synchronous motor (PMSM), the energy
consumption during unload condition of compressor can
be avoided.
Table-6 provides the cost-benefit analysis of replacing an
existing air compressor new VFD based PMSM screw
compressor.

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Table-6: Adoption of New Energy Efficient (EE)
Compressor
Parameters Unit Value
Rating kW 37
Capacity CFM 247
Present energy consumption kWh/year 211,935
Energy consumption with new kWh/year 156,675
EE compressor
Energy saving kWh/year 55,260
Monetary saving Rs lakh/year 4.07
Investment cost Rs lakh 9.0 Fig 6: Crimped hose joints on flexible piping

Simple payback period year 2.2 Substantial energy can be saved, without incurring any major
investments, by the measure as is illustrated in Table-8.
Install VFD in sand plant mixer motor
Table-8: Arresting Leakages of Compressed Air in the
The sand plant operates on a batch mode depending on the
Plant
production of the plant. Mixer motor is loaded about 40%
of the time and is in low load or no load condition for the Parameter Unit Moulding Core shop,
remaining period. The motor consumes power in low load area fettling, shot
or no load condition which can be avoided by installing a blasting
VFD. The cost-benefit of the measure is provided in Table-7. areas
Leakage % 19 34
Table-7: Installation of VFD for Mixer Motor Acceptable loss % 10 10
Parameters Unit Value Energy saving kW 3.6 9.2
Rating Hp 75 A n n u a l hours 7200 3600
Present energy consumption kWh/year 160,608 operating hours
Energy savings kWh/year 26,173 33,209
Energy consumption with kWh/year 136,517
M o n e t a r y Rs lakh/yr 4.38
VFD
savings
Energy saving kWh/year 24,091 Investment cost Rs Nil
Monetary saving Rs lakh/year 1.78 S i m p l e year Immediate
Investment cost Rs lakh 1.5 payback period
Simple payback period year 0.8 Optimise compressed air generation pressure
The compressed air generation pressure is often kept higher
Arrest compressed air leakages than process requirement to account for any pressure drop.
It is recommended to reduce compressed air leakages by Pressure drops can be minimized by adopting ring loop
periodically checking and plugging any air leaks, and bring compressed air piping as shown in Fig 7.
the overall leakage to about 5%. For example, air leakages The operating pressure of the air compressor was set at
from flexible pipe joints are quite common. These leakages 7.9 bar (unload) and 7.4 bar (load) in a plant while it was
can be arrested easily by crimping the joints as shown in required at 5.5 bar. It was recommended to reduce the
Fig 6. settings to 7.0 bar (unload) and 6.5 bar (load).

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 Replace conventional lighting with energy
efficient lighting
Conventional lights like fluorescent tube lights (FLTs) and
halogen lamps consume more energy. Replacing FTLs
with 10W LED tube lights and halogen lamps with 80W
induction lamps leads to energy savings. The cost-benefit of
the replacement in a foundry having 80 FLTs and 4 halogen
lamps is provided in Table-10.
Table-10: Replacement of Conventional Lights with
Fig 7 : Ring Loop Piping EE Lights
Parameters UnitPresent Proposed
The savings by the change is given in Table-9. Type of lamp 40W FLT 10W
Table-9: Optimisation of Compressed Air Generation 150W LED tube
Pressure Halogen light 80W
Parameter Unit Present Proposed Induction
Power consumption kWh/year 11,253 5,484
Power consumption kWh/year 283,928 -
Energy savings kWh/year 5,769
of air compressor at
Monetary savings Rs lakh/ 0.45
7.9 bar pressure
year
Power consumption kWh/year - 266,041 Total investment Rs lakh 1.9
of air compressor at cost
7.0 bar pressure Simple payback year
Energy savings kWh/year 17,887 period
Monetary savings Rs lakh/ 1.32 References
year
1. Pal P et al 2014, Energy Efficient Small Cupola for
Investment (for Rs lakh 0.50 Indian Foundry Units: Results of an Applied Research
modification to ring Project, Indian Foundry Journal, vol 60, No. 1, January
frame system) 2014.
Simple payback year 0.38 2. Pal P and Nandgopal E, 2016: Case-Studies on Energy
period Efficiency Improvement in Foundries, Indian Foundry
Journal, vol 62, No. 9, September 2016.

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