Combustion Industry Profile
Combustion systems are used in virtually every manufacturing industry and there are significant energy saving opportunities for most of these industries. As shown in the figure to the left, some industries are more combustion intensive than others. Additionally, some industries are large steam users, others are fired-heater intensives, and others use large amounts of energy for both systems. |
Combustion systems in manufacturing account for 15 quads of energy use. Process heating equipments consumes 52 percent of this energy and steam systems account for the remaining 48 percent. Both systems offer very large potential savings. If all manufacturers adopted today's best combustion technologies, almost three quads and 12 billion dollars would be saved. With advances in technology-fostered by joint R&D now under way by industry partners and ITP - the potential savings are far greater. |
U.S. industries rely on combustion systems for heat and steam generation. The systems enable indispensable industrial processes, such as heating metals and chemical feedstocks, as well as the ability to change the mechanical and chemical properties of materials. Major end users include energy-intensive industrial sectors, such as petroleum, metals, and forest products.
Realizing the Potential
Combustion poses fascinating contradictions. It is:
- Literally prehistoric, yet remains as essential to modern life as it was to earliest humankind ...
- As simple as striking a match, yet unpredictable and profoundly complex in its applications ...
- A long-established workhorse in many industries ... yet realizing its full potential will stretch the limits of science and technology.
New technologies promise increasingly efficient, clean, fuel-flexible, and reliable combustion systems capable of producing uniform, high-quality end products at high production rates. Improved combustion technologies also offer benefits to our nation, furthering energy security and environmental protection goals.
Importance to U.S. Industries
Combustion systems are used to generate steam and heat for manufacturing processes, to heat materials as diverse as metals and chemical feedstocks, and to change the mechanical and chemical properties of materials and products.
The magnitude of potential energy savings is very large. Virtually every manufacturing industry has a stake in improved combustion technologies. Boilers, furnaces, and other process heaters together account for about two-thirds of the total energy used by U.S. manufacturing industries. As the chart illustrates, the proportion is even higher in several key sectors.
Greater combustion efficiency can improve the bottom-line returns for U.S. industries—not only by saving energy, but also by improving the productivity, quality, and operating costs of key processes.
The potential for improvement is huge, especially in industries that are process-heat intensive and use outdated, inefficient equipment. Combustion in manufacturing consumes some 15 quads of fuel. As the chart shows, the total potential energy savings through widespread use of improved combustion systems are in excess of 2.6 quads, which translates into almost $12 billion savings for industry.
R&D Challenges 
The challenges of improving combustion processes are highly complex, and the combustion equipment industry—a fragmented, low-margin sector—lacks the resources to tackle them alone. Through selective, cost-shared R&D projects, DOE and industry are laying the foundation for enhanced combustion performance. The focus is on R&D areas that offer the greatest potential for energy savings and have been designated as priorities in the combustion vision and technology roadmap.
While developments at the component level will remain important, breakthroughs in efficiency, productivity, safety, and environmental performance hinge on optimizing combustion processes from a total systems perspective. Such an approach demands new levels of sophistication in computational science and systems engineering.