Potential savings by cogeneration of heat and power in aluminium die casting operations

Abstract

Each time there are more vehicles on our roads, and each time the pollution in the world is bigger. Is work for everybody to try to decrease these emissions and make the world a little cleaner. Every time the antipollution laws in the motoring world are stricter, and will be more in the future, therefore the motoring companies have to search different ways to decrease the pollution. There are a lot of ways to reduce the pollution emissions, and the most of them are related to decrease the fuel consumption, therefore AUDI A.G. wants to decrease the fuel consumptions decreasing the weight of the cars by intensive use of aluminum, but saving the environment should also improve economy by cost saving, therefore AUDI A.G., whose production center is located in Ingolstadt, has installed a new production process based on aluminum die casting technology, with this new technology AUDI wants to make its own aluminum pieces and increase its final benefits, also would decrease the dependence to the suppliers and would reach a bigger flexibility into the manufacturing process. With the goal of improving the die-casting process, decided to study different ways to save energy. One possibility would be to install a cogeneration plant to supply electricity and heat to the productive process. This project has the goal to size and evaluate a cogeneration plant, in order to satisfy the energy demands of the production. To this end, different technologies will be technically and economically valued, and their feasibility, which will lead to the choice of the final size of the plant. The fundamental purpose of the installation is to optimize the needs of the industry, taking advantage of the residual energy available in the engine and with this energy, supply the production process in the AUDI’s new aluminum die-casting plant in Münchsmünster (adjacent to Ingolstadt). The new die-casting plant is composed by 3 different components: the foundries, the diecasting machines and the ovens for the heat treatment.