Caterpillar Inc. - Technology & Solutions Division
Mossville, Illinois
Intern: Naweed Khan
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
Caterpillar is a major manufacturer of construction and mining equipment;
diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines. Caterpillar’s
Technology and Solutions Division is located in Mossville. This facility
focuses on product research, design and testing.
The intern was assigned to work at the Heat Treat Section where a pilot project
has been underway to improve the energy efficiency of the Integrated Quench
(IQ) Furnace. This furnace operates on natural gas.
Anticipated Results:
A burner-tube ‘insert’ was purchased and installed on the IQ furnace. The
manufacturer of this device had claimed the potential to save up to 10 - 20
% on fuel consumption depending on the variables like, furnace condition, load
variation and recuperated v/s non-recuperated furnace. A series of experimental
heat-treat jobs were arranged by the intern to evaluate the energy savings
potential of this system. The results of burner-insert energy tests were
not available at the end of the internship due to a busy production schedule.
The intern was also tasked with validating a new software tool called PHAST
(Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool) to predict the energy savings
associated with the modifications to the furnace. If the PHAST software
can be validated, additional costs savings can be realized by reducing the
need for actual experimentation that is time and cost intensive.
Actual Results:
Potential savings through the application of burner inserts have shown potential
energy reduction between 5 to 12 % depending on the load weight, process temperature
and load arrangement. Currently, the inserts have been left in the test
furnace and the furnace is running without any trouble.
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