Energy saving dual spray nozzles in Continuous Casting Machine
The steel industry in Europe accounts for around 5% of the CO2 emissions and steel companies are putting a lot of effort into decarbonizing this energy intensive process. While most change is expected to come from a green hydrogen powered process, the steel companies are prompted to look into several kinds of ways to conserve more energy.
A dual spray nozzle solution
A large European steelmaker was looking for ways to reduce its energy use on the production site. The production team realized that by replacing the spray nozzles on the continuous casting machines with ones that use less compressed air, they could save thousands on energy costs annually.
The customer tested Ikeuchi’s VV+AS dual spray nozzles which is a dual hydraulic and pneumatic solution. This dual nozzle injects assist air at low pressure, which maintains the spray angle equivalent to when used as a hydraulic nozzle, thereby creating a stable and uniform cooling effect.
This way, the steelmaker would only use compressed air when necessary instead of constantly and thereby save tons of energy. The steelmaker could maintain the same cooling ability on the CMM while using 80% less air.
VV+AS dual spray nozzle setup on Continuous Casting Machine at steel making facility
Results
After a succesfull testing period, the customer decided to exchange all of their pneumatic nozzles on the continous casting machines to this dual solution. This led to a cost reduction of 480.000 Euros per year, as well as a great contribution to CO2 reduction. While making this seemingly small change in the production, a lot of profit was gained.
Ikeuchi dual-nozzles : VV+ AS / VVP + AS
- Can be used as a hydraulic nozzle for medium/high flow rates and as a pneumatic nozzle for low flow rates.
- Can achieve great results in energy reduction in cases where the pneumatic nozzle is not continously needed.
- Suitable for processes which require minimal variation in spray distribution and spray angle.
- Find it here: https://www.ikeuchi.eu/products/pneumatic-nozzles/special-pneumatic-nozzles/vvpas-series/
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