Summary of the energy efficient, waste-reducing technology assessment conducted for DOE and EPAct 2108

The industrial sector is the most complex and diverse segment of the US economy. There are more than 360,000 industrial facilities in the US, using tens of thousands of processes with millions of different pieces of equipment and employing nearly 30 million people to make hundreds of thousands of products. These facilities consume large quantities of raw materials and energy resources every year. Their waste streams, as well as the technology options for preventing them, are very specific not only to individual industries, but even to plants within the same industry that produce similar products. On October 24, 1992, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) into law as Public Law 102-486. Section 2108 of the Act requires the DOE to identify opportunities to demonstrate energy efficient pollution prevention technologies and processes. As a first step in DOE`s response to congress, Sandia National Laboratories lead a fast tracked project to compile information from the open literature, and pilot a process for identifying and prioritizing opportunity areas from industrial and federal experts. Approximately 300 documents were collected and reviewed, and knowledgeable individuals in government, universities, and trade associations were interviewed. A panel of experts from petroleum industry was assembled for the future opportunity assessments pilot These activities were conducted between May and August, 1993. Project background and results are summarized

Numerical investigation of an innovative furnace concept for industrial coil coating lines

In this work, the engineering performance of an innovative furnace concept developed for continuous drying and curing of paint-coated metal sheets (coil coating process) is investigated through advanced modeling and numerical simulation techniques. Unlike the traditional and wide-spread coil coating furnaces – which operate according to the so-called convective air-drying technology –, the present furnace concept relies on infrared radiative heating to drive solvent evaporation and curing reactions. Radiative heat is provided by the operation of radiant porous burners which are fed with evaporated solvents. The current furnace concept consists of two main chambers (the radiant burner section and the curing oven section) with different gas compositions (atmospheres) that are separated by a semi-transparent window. The window allows energy transfer and prevents gas mixing between the two sections. To utilize the solvent-loaded atmosphere available in the curing oven section as fuel – and to prevent the development of explosive conditions therein –, a novel inertization concept shielding the curing oven section from the external environment is considered. The current furnace concept aims at improving process intensification and promoting energy efficiency. For the current furnace concept, numerical simulation results support a suitable and competitive performance for drying the applied coatings in comparison with the traditional approach. Simultaneously, a safe operation is predicted, without (i) solvent leakage from the furnace and (ii) oxygen entrainment from the surrounding ambient into the furnace. These conditions are satisfied demonstrating a safe operation and a complete evaporation of solvents from applied liquid film coatings

Numerical investigation of an innovative furnace concept for industrial coil coating lines

This research was funded by the European Community's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under grant agreement no. 768692 (ECCO). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)In this work, the engineering performance of an innovative furnace concept developed for continuous drying and curing of paint-coated metal sheets (coil coating process) is investigated through advanced modeling and numerical simulation techniques. Unlike the traditional and wide-spread coil coating furnaces – which operate according to the so-called convective air-drying technology –, the present furnace concept relies on infrared radiative heating to drive solvent evaporation and curing reactions. Radiative heat is provided by the operation of radiant porous burners which are fed with evaporated solvents. The current furnace concept consists of two main chambers (the radiant burner section and the curing oven section) with different gas compositions (atmospheres) that are separated by a semi-transparent window. The window allows energy transfer and prevents gas mixing between the two sections. To utilize the solvent-loaded atmosphere available in the curing oven section as fuel – and to prevent the development of explosive conditions therein –, a novel inertization concept shielding the curing oven section from the external environment is considered. The current furnace concept aims at improving process intensification and promoting energy efficiency. For the current furnace concept, numerical simulation results support a suitable and competitive performance for drying the applied coatings in comparison with the traditional approach. Simultaneously, a safe operation is predicted, without (i) solvent leakage from the furnace and (ii) oxygen entrainment from the surrounding ambient into the furnace. These conditions are satisfied demonstrating a safe operation and a complete evaporation of solvents from applied liquid film coatings.publishersversionpublishe

The Refurbished Z Facility: Capabilities and Recent Experiments

The Z Refurbishment Project was completed in September 2007. Prior to the shutdown of the Z facility in July 2006 to install the new hardware, it provided currents of ≤ 20 MA to produce energetic, intense X-ray sources ( ≈1.6 MJ, > 200 TW) for performing high energy density science experiments and to produce high magnetic fields and pressures for performing dynamic material property experiments. The refurbishment project doubled the stored energy within the existing tank structure and replaced older components with modern, conventional technology and systems that were designed to drive both short-pulse Z-pinch implosions and long-pulse dynamic material property experiments. The project goals were to increase the delivered current for additional performance capability, improve overall precision and pulse shape flexibility for better reproducibility and data quality, and provide the capacity to perform more shots. Experiments over the past year have been devoted to bringing the facility up to full operating capabilities and implementing a refurbished suite of diagnostics. In addition, we have enhanced our X-ray backlighting diagnostics through the addition of a two-frame capability to the Z-Beamlet system and the addition of a high power laser (Z-Petawatt). In this paper, we will summarize the changes made to the Z facility, highlight the new capabilities, and discuss the results of some of the early experiments