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High-tech ‘jackets’ to help regulate energy use
High-tech ‘jackets’ to help aluminium producers regulate energy use
New research at the University of Auckland developing retrofit technology for the production of aluminium would be the first in the world to allow the industry to more easily regulate electricity use.
New research at the University of Auckland developing retrofit technology for the production of aluminium would be the first in the world to allow the industry to more easily regulate electricity use.
Professor Mark Taylor and Dr Golbon Zakeri from the University’s Faculty of Engineering will present the research in a public lecture tomorrow night as part of the 2014 Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Renewable Energy.
Called Shell Heat Exchangers, the innovative technology is currently being tested in Germany and is designed to fit around the outside of the electrolysis cells which produce aluminium. The cells need to maintain molten electrolyte at a temperature of 950degC.
But cells lose energy as heat during the production process which, in the aluminium industry, is a continuous process.
“The molten bath and metal in the cells must be maintained at a certain temperature, so at present there is very little flexibility,” Professor Taylor says. “This new heat exchanger technology could allow NZAS to regulate energy use to a point where the company could reduce consumption by up to 30% at certain times.”
Dr Golbon Zakeri, a senior lecturer in Engineering Science, says focusing on new technology to help big energy users become more energy efficient has potentially wider benefits.
“Domestic electricity use is quite variable and you have hundreds of thousands of individual customers, making it a challenge to get consistent savings from householders,” she says.
“But if we can work with large industrial players to increase New Zealand’s electricity efficiency, then that can make a significant difference overall.”
NZAS uses the equivalent electricity of over six hundred thousand households.
Professor Taylor, from the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, says NZAS would be the first aluminium smelter in the world able to regulate its energy use once the technology is installed. It is already the only smelter in the world to produce 99.98% pure aluminium.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture series runs from October 13 to October 21. For more information go to www.auckland.ac.nz/vclectures
ENDS
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