The environmental impact and economic feasibility of introducing an Organic Rankine Cycle to recover low grade heat during the production of metallurgical coke

摘要: Abstract Large quantities of low grade heat (LGH) are generated within many process industries, and the recovery LGH is a potentially significant means improving efficiency, but it often difficult to find an appropriate internal load. One alternative use technologies convert electricity for onsite. This paper describes environmental techno-economic evaluation case study examining potential application Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) generate from stacks coke oven used in steel production. 21 MW was available at plant resource accounting life-cycle analysis methods were evaluate economic benefits operation ORC. The results showed that between 1 3% CO2 emitted directly through production would be offset by installation ORC, with impacts, (including different coal processes) reduced less than 1%, although this sufficient over 10,000 t annually. However, amount replace all currently imported indicated relatively attractive discounted pay-back period 3 6 years, suggesting may commercially viable option, which could present cost effective method achieving greenhouse gas savings industries.