Measures and means to improve the energy efficiency of food production

Abstract

Improving the energy efficiency of modern enterprises, including the food industry as one of the priorities for the life support of the population, is of strategic importance for Ukraine. The purpose of the study is an analysis of the energy-saving potential of food industry enterprises and the search for ways to reduce the energy intensity of technological processes, devices, and equipment, as well as transmission heat losses of buildings and structures. For field tests of industrial and technological objects, a combined thermal imaging and thermometric research methodology was chosen, which combines thermal imaging of characteristic thermal zones to detect anomalous areas and contact measurements of thermophysical parameters in these zones. A computerised information and measuring system equipped with a set of primary sensors of temperature, heat flux, humidity, etc. was used for long-term monitoring of thermophysical parameters simultaneously at different sites of the facilities. As a result, an array of data was obtained and processed, the parameters of complex convective and radiation heat transfer were calculated, and the heat transfer resistance was determined, which allows assessing the degree of danger of the detected thermal anomalies and developing measures for thermal modernisation of facilities using modern thermal insulation materials. Reduction of heat loss in production processes is also achieved by organising high-quality thermal insulation of technological apparatuses, pipelines and refrigeration equipment. The main parameter for selecting the required material is its low thermal conductivity in the operating temperature range of the equipment. For the effective heat insulator selection, the thermal conductivity of a number of popular materials of world-famous manufacturers was studied based on the certified information-measuring system of Ukrainian design by the stationary plate method with the use of heat flux and temperature sensors. The thermophysical parameters of heat-insulating materials in the range of 0.02...0.045 W/(m·K) were estimated and thereby revealed the thermal conductivity of materials with a closed microporous structure to be half that of fibrous ones and not dependent on the density of the material, which makes them the best option for high-quality insulation of buildings and equipment of food production

Keywords

• energy saving
• energy audit
• thermal insulation
• monitoring
• heat transfer resistance
• thermal resistance
• thermal conductivity