The technology center implements a system in the furnaces of the steel company from Aragon, to improve the combustion process and reduce its environmental impact.
Energy is a key factor for the competitiveness of companies, especially in industrial sectors that make intensive use of this resource. These industries, especially those dedicated to the internationalization of their products, are especially affected by the escalation in prices and environmental impact.
Aware of this, Ebroacero, which belongs to the steel industry in Aragon, has begun an improvement process by installing a system in one of its furnaces that increases the energy efficiency of the entire process and expands its production capacity. This has allowed it to increase its client portfolio, assuming larger jobs in a more agile way.
This result has been made thanks to the collaboration with the technology center CIRCE, which has made it possible to improve combustion efficiency, reduce gas consumption and increase the quality of the treatments by homogenizing the temperature inside the furnace. With this, thermal losses have been reduced by 59% thanks to a new wall covering that improves insulation and the modification of gas recirculation, increasing their heat exchange with the pieces.
This project has allowed Ebroacero to increase its competitiveness, improve the efficiency of processes while improving its carbon footprint as well. Furthermore, Ebroacero has increased its productivity and reduced delivery times, which are key elements to compete with the big global players in the sector.
Since the heat treatments of the furnace are long, from 12 to 22 hours, great savings have been achieved in fuel consumption, as well as reducing the emission of polluting gases into the atmosphere, thus contributing to a more economical and cleaner process.
In this kind of process, the final quality of the material requires ensuring homogeneous and controlled heating. After the modifications, the distribution of surface temperatures of the pieces has improved remarkably, going down from around 85 degrees Celsius to values between 30 and 40 degrees Celsius. All this allows treatments to be carried out at high temperatures (900 degrees Celsius) and at medium temperatures (600 degrees Celsius), ensuring the highest quality in the pieces.
This improvement process has been possible thanks to the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) fluid simulation technology developed by CIRCE. Thanks to this tool, which works like a digital test bench, it has been possible to optimize designs and processes on an industrial scale without affecting the daily operation of the industrial facility, saving costs in the redesign phase of the installation and shortening deadlines until the phase of production.
About Ebroacero
EBROACERO, S.A. is a foundry that works in the supply of cast and machined parts for different international markets. One of the markets with the greatest evolution, and therefore competition, is the offshore market with large offshore oil and gas extraction projects, as well as wind farm projects in this sector. This market requires the manufacture of cast parts with high mechanical requirements due to the great demands that the parts require.
About CIRCE
CIRCE is a technology center founded in 1993 as a private non-profit foundation with the aim of creating, developing and transferring innovative solutions and scientific-technical knowledge to the business sector in the energy field. The organization works to improve the competitiveness of the national and international productive sectors by generating transfer of technology through R+D+i activities and market-oriented training within the field of sustainability and efficiency of resources, energy networks and renewable energies.
