Solar Assisted Production of Expanded Polystyrene with High Efficiency Flat Plate Collectors
Abstract
The use of solar thermal energy for process heating in industry is a young field which has a high theoretical potential to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel, but also represents a high technical and economical challenge. In the framework of a running project we investigate the integration of a solar heating system into an existing production process of expanded polystyrene (EPS), through utilization of recently developed high efficiency flat plate collectors. For this purpose a detailed process analysis based on an extensive measuring campaign and a simulation study with different solar integration and efficiency strategies are conducted. The results should provide a basis for the development of a suitable integration concept. This paper features the results of the analysis and of the simulation study, showing different solutions for solar integration with reductions of fossil fuel consumption up to 11 %.
Keywords
Process heat, High efficiency flat plate collector, Industry, Expanded polystyrene, Eps, Efficiency