Analysis of energy, exergy and CO2 emissions in a fiberglass furnace with oxy-fuel combustion

Energy savings and emission reductions in the building materials industry are key components of China's dual carbon goals. A new mathematical model of material, energy, exergy, and carbon flows was established and verified against operational data for an 80600 t/y fiberglass furnace in China. The model enables thermal budget calculation along different paths and analysis of the losses and saving potential of the entire fiberglass melting furnace and its three major subsystems. The results indicated that the selected fiberglass furnace attained a satisfactory performance with a specific energy consumption of 4.63 MJ/kg and an energy efficiency of 74.76%. Oxy-fuel combustion provided a substantial overall fuel reduction relative to air combustion. Moreover, the exergy efficiency and effective exergy efficiency reached 62.85% and 55.23%, respectively. The heat recovery system increased the exergy efficiency by 11.01%. Furthermore, the CO2 emissions associated with glass pro-duction, major contributors, CO2 reduction potential, and economic impact were obtained. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the combustion chamber was conducted. This approach could identify the degree of resource and energy utilization and support the implementation of energy and exergy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction schemes.

Automated summary

A mathematical model was established to analyze the energy consumption and carbon emissions of a fiberglass furnace in China, providing insights for energy and carbon reduction strategies.