William Cook Energy Efficiency Feasibility Study

William Cook is a forward-thinking company which wants to act in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner by minimising its energy losses and recovering waste heat from its furnaces. William Cook's Sheffield site specialises in manufacturing cast components and specialist alloys and superalloys for various sectors such as defence, rail, construction and oil and gas. The casting process is very energy intensive as it requires melting of metals and alloys. The site operates a number of electric induction furnaces and gas-fired heavy foundry furnaces which consume a significant amount of gas and electricity every year. The temperatures inside the furnaces are about 1,200oC and a significant amount of high-grade heat from the furnaces is lost to the atmosphere in the form of hot flue gases. In this Phase 1 IETF application for feasibility study, we will be looking to improve the site's energy efficiency and reduce its environmental footprint by recovering waste heat from the exhaust gases for a variety of possible uses such as producing electricity by Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), pre-heating combustion air, pre-heating of feedstock, production of hot water and steam and rapid cooling using Absorption Chilling. The feasibility study will determine the best technical and financial solutions for the site. Later, in Phase 2 of the IETF, we will be looking to secure additional financial support from the grant for the deployment of the chosen technical solution.

The project is innovative as it requires knowledge and expertise in waste heat recovery and utilisation, heat transfer, thermodynamics, etc. as well as experience of heat utilisation technologies. It also requires special measuring and monitoring equipment. William Cook have thus partnered with Hallam Energy at Sheffield Hallam University to lead this study.