Abstract Steel is the inevitable material for the infrastructure and has the strategic importance for the growth of the country. Iron and steel making industry is one of the most energy-intensive industries, with 5% of the worlds total energy consumption. Therefore, it is required to develop suitable and efficient energy management during various processing in steel plants. Both academic and industrial research is going on worldwide to increase the energy efficiency for reducing the energy cost imparted due to application of reheating furnaces in various metallurgical process. Reheating furnaces are widely used in the Iron and Steel Industry to reheat the semi-finished products like slabs or billets to the rolling temperature at 1250 °C. Reheating furnace is one of the major energy consuming equipment for rolling mills. It is also important to optimize the fuel consumption in this reheating process to avoid any overheating of the steel material which may result in the poor quality of the final product. The aim of this investigation is to conduct an analysis to explore possibilities for the improvement in the energy efficiency of an operating natural gas fired reheating furnace. Some important efficiency improvement measurements were conducted and the fuel efficiency improved by 21% along with the productivity increased by 11%. As a result of these investigations, some energy saving opportunities were ascertained. These measures culminate in the overall projected fiscal savings of INR 264 million/year. Our study not only provides efficient solutions to steel industry for proper energy utilization, but also offers ways for the self-innovation of other academic and laboratory scale research activity.

中文翻译：

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通过热平衡研究和工艺改进提高钢坯加热炉的能效

摘要 钢铁是基础设施建设的必然材料，对国家的发展具有战略意义。钢铁工业是能源消耗最高的行业之一，占世界能源消耗总量的5%。因此，需要在钢铁厂的各种加工过程中制定合适和有效的能源管理。学术和工业研究都在世界范围内进行，以提高能源效率，以降低由于加热炉在各种冶金过程中的应用而带来的能源成本。加热炉广泛用于钢铁工业，将板坯或钢坯等半成品加热至1250°C的轧制温度。加热炉是轧钢厂主要的耗能设备之一。在这个再加热过程中优化燃料消耗也很重要，以避免钢材过热，这可能导致最终产品的质量不佳。本次调查的目的是进行分析，探索提高运行中的天然气加热炉能效的可能性。进行了一些重要的效率改进措施，燃油效率提高了 21%，生产率提高了 11%。通过这些调查，确定了一些节能机会。这些措施最终实现了 2.64 亿印度卢比/年的总体预计财政节省。我们的研究不仅为钢铁行业正确利用能源提供了有效的解决方案，