Energetic and exergetic assessment of a trass mill process in a cement plant

Cement production has become one of the most intensive energy industries in the world. For producing it, addition materials have been widely used in cement factories. The main objective of this study is to assess the performance of a trass mill in a cement plant based on the actual operational data using energy and exergy analysis method. In this regard, the values for energy consumption and losses throughout the production process are described. In the process, the overall exergy efficiencies are found to be slightly less than the corresponding energy efficiencies; e.g. 74% and 10.68% for energy and exergy efficiency, respectively. Using energy recovery systems, waste heat energy may be captured, while energy and exergy efficiency values can be improved to 84% and 48%, respectively. It may also be concluded that the analyses reported here will provide the investigators with knowledge about how effectively and efficiently a sector uses its energy resources. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.