FEATURE ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | MAY/JUNE 2024 39 THE FUTURE OF HEAT TREATING Heat treating methods have evolved with industrial furnace technology advancements. Furnaces available today have many standard offerings, including the choice of electric or gas heating. An easy way to compare these heating options is to look at capital expenditure (CAPEX) pricing. Furnace providers can additionally calculate operating costs, maintenance costs, energy consumption in processing, and emissions of the equipment. These are all important for heat treaters to operate successfully within today’s market. DECARBONIZATION Decarbonization legislative initiatives are requiring heat treaters to look at alternatives to natural gas for decarbonization. The most tangible is electrification. Electric heating elements and induction are well established alternatives. There are others such as hydrogen or ammonia burners, infrared, and microwave heating. The alternatives to natural gas heating currently have higher CO2 impacts on the environment when source production is considered. Decarbonization is an effort of the DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) whose objective is to decrease hydrocarbon use in metal processing with the goal of decreasing greenhouse gas. These initiatives have grown out of international accords and local regulations from containment zones and are to be applied industry wide. The leading efforts have focused on upstream activities like primary metal production. However, efforts are migrating downstream to component manufacturers because industry primes must deal with environmental policies of their suppliers to control and calculate their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS Fuel-fired furnace technology has not had a major efficiency gain in recent decades, and to meet targets it will take sweeping changes. Start small and smart by maintaining and monitoring current equipment. GUEST EDITORIAL Heating fuel is one source of carbon emissions. Process gas is another source. Ideally situated in both cases is an electric vacuum furnace. For fuel-fired or atmosphere furnaces, as the switch to electric is made, you need to maintain process atmospheres for the material. For example, going from products of combustion to air increases oxidation and requires generated atmospheres. Heat treaters can calculate the impact of onsite generated endothermic gas atmospheres or exothermic gas atmospheres, while liquified and bottled gas comes with its own carbon footprint (acetylene, nitrogen, and methanol). Industrial gas’ environmental impact is often overlooked for vacuum heat treatment. What is not considered is the energy source for electrification. In North America, the electric power generation mix is still carbon based and the emission factor should be used to calculate the baseline. If your electric supply has high fossil fuel, then use natural gas; and if it is renewable-based, use electricity. The other item that is often pushed aside with respect to electrification is the impact on operation costs and current processing methods, which are substantial. To be sustainable, the technologies applied must be commercially viable. In general, going from natural gas to electric requires derating furnaces. Immediate efforts and enforcement should be based on furnace types, fuel, heat loss, and heating rates. They should also be focused on tangible ways to reduce carbon footprint, including maintaining gas burners, repair insulation for heat loss, clean heat exchangers, recuperation up to 71% efficiency, waste heat to preheat loads, and power factor improvements. Electrification is going to play a key role in building the heat treat of the future. It will attract the next generation of talent with a cleaner work environment and provide a fulfilling career working for an environmentally friendly business. The nexus where a clean energy source with low operating costs meets electrification technologies in the heat treat department will be the tipping point. At that stage, we will be in a better position as an industry and as a planet. Even though there are questionable commercial decisions to be weathered, welcome the challenge, and innovate to make the heat treat of the future a cleaner sustainable industrial process. Benjamin T. Bernard Vice President, Global Sales, Surface Combustion HTS President Bernard 2
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTYyMzk3NQ==