Operational Group Limited products

Reuse, reduce and recycle energy in the ceramic tile manufacturing process with Operational’s waste heat recovery systems.The ceramic tile making process firstly requires the compression of powdered clay into the tile shape. The tiles are then dried using hot air in a continuous dryer to reduce the water content. After drying the tiles are coated with glaze and patterned. The tiles then enter, typically, a 130 metre long continuous kiln and reach temperatures of up to 1200oC in the centre of this kiln. The high temperature kiln exhaust air can contain solids and potentially corrosive, gaseous and liquid contaminants.

Reuse, recycle and recover waste heat energy from your brick kilns to power your businessBrick kiln exhaust temperatures will reach 200oC during the initial stage of the drying process. The kiln exhaust temperatures will then fire up to around 1000oC and a variety of toxic components such as halogens, chlorides and fluorides are released posing potential for material attack in both gas and liquid phases.

Operational were consulted and requested to design and supply a system to recover heat from the high temperature exhaust and pre-heat the combustion air to the main pre-mix furnace burners. Annealing of the wires took place at temperatures of between 900oC and 1100 oC and the exhaust gases passed to atmosphere at temperatures of up to 820o We utilised a fully welded air to air plate heat exchanger constructed in stainless steel and high temperature bifurcated fan system capable of recovering 70% of the available sensible heat. With continuous operation of 8400 h/year the return on investment was below 2 years.