Process Optimization for Pellets Production

Abstract Nowadays, it is important to make industries more and more energy efficient. When we look at pellet production, energy consumption improvements are those with the strongest effects. Optimization methods for drum dryers and combined heat and power plants (CHP) are offered in this paper, as these are the main thermal energy sources in pellet production. Drum dryers are used to dry sawdust used for pellet production. It is important to look at the efficiency of the drying process and the problems caused by human factor. A method of automatic drum dryer implementation is offered in the paper. However, CHP have proved to be more efficient for pellet production with reduced CO 2 emissions when compared to drum dryers. CHP can be divided, based on consumer type as CHP in central heating system and industrial CHP. The former provides thermal energy for consumers in cities, and the latter provides it for local factories and industrial groups. There is a drop in thermal energy consumption over the summer, giving an opportunity to use the remaining thermal energy for cooling needs. Finding solutions to increase heat capacity is important to increase electricity production from CHP and improve plants’ economic efficiency. A solution offered in the paper is remaining thermal energy use in absorber coolers needs.