Improving Process Sustainability for a Large U.S. Gray Iron Foundry

Improving Process Sustainabililty for a Large U.S. Gray Iron Foundry

Prashant Nagapurkar, Shyam Paudel and Joseph D. Smith, PhD.

Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA

Abstract

Sustainability has been a key issue in many industrial processes. In 2012, the U.S. produced 12 million tonnes of metal castings equivalent to $34 billion in total revenue. The metal casting industry will continue to face unstable energy markets as well as stringent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations for their greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the environmental effects of the foundry process. This study conducts a life cycle analysis for assessing environmental impacts associated with the production of gray iron castings at the Caterpillar^TM foundry at Mapleton, IL. Initially, a base case study has been developed on Powersim^TM software to estimate the CO₂ emissions for the existing process at Mapleton foundry. Based on our plant visit and its process assessment, we have proposed advanced control strategies for energy intensive variables like melters, fans, dust collectors and burners to optimize and reduce energy consumption. After implementation of these control strategies our simulation results show that Mapleton foundry has a  potential to reduce their CO₂ emissions by 18% when compared to the base model thereby making their process more sustainable and profitable.