Managing fuels efficiently is one of the vital areas in effective energy management opportunities. For doing this the process must be made efficient which in turn helps in reducing the consumption and thereby helps in achieving effective energy management opportunity. Some bigger organization makes their own electricity by using of CHP co-generators also called as combined heat and power co-generators. Once the process is made efficient then reusing energy say as waste heat from fuel gas is carried out to make the process more upgraded.
One more step towards managing fuels could be making process changes and if needed changes even in the source of energy. Though some organization may find it difficult to go for the source of energy change considering the cost involved in the changing process, the change of source would prove its worth if done after considering the benefits. For instance previously gas was used as the source of energy in many aluminum foundries but by changing this source of energy to electricity many of the aluminum foundries could see beneficial results. The benefits were achieved in terms of quality, reduction in gas-melting losses, and improvement in metal cleansing process and so on. So by considering these benefits the cost in the change process is definitely worth.
The objective to achieve while carrying out the whole process of reduction of consumption in natural gas or fuel oil is to make the process of combustion efficient to the maximum. This maximum efficiency could be achieved by concentrating on various attributes gas or oil delivery system, combustion, air tightness of the furnace chamber and thermal losses. The oil storage and delivery must be made with proper care as there is higher possibility of their leakages when season changes. Also the leakages would have great impact on the environment causing pollution. So oil storage and delivery systems as a whole must be checked regular and constantly. All the filters, pumps, pipes, recording the gas meter reading and so on all these must be done for oil storage and delivery system at regular and consistent intervals.
Proper usage and choice on the type of refractory materials used is important to prevent thermal loss. Thermal loss includes various types of losses in it. To name a few are conductive, heat sinks and radiation. The usage of firebrick on the lining of the surface would require to maintain its thickness and mass in correct level which otherwise would result in conductive loss and heat sinks respectively. Melting furnaces would face the concept of radiation loss in large extent. For efficient system maintenance with good management of fuel it is very vital to concentrate on stream usage and control it to minimum.
Regular and consistent maintenance and checks all equipments in a foundry would help in efficient and effective system and fuel management. For instance regular maintenance of burners, checking levels of gas consistently like checking oxygen level, CO levels, flue gas composition control, installing meters for checking process, regular and constant servicing of equipments like gas burners and so on helps in achieving efficient system and fuel management.