Energy Economical and Environmental Analysis of Industrial Boilers : Application of Variable Speed Drives (VSD), Fuel Switching and Economizers

In 1985 Malaysia has changed from agricultural into industrial based economy. The industrial sector represents the highest consuming sector across all other sectors and accounts for about 48% of total energy demand. This study is concerned with an energy saving, economic and environmental analysis of industrial boilers in Malaysia. There are three principles that have been investigated: Installation of variable speed drive; fuels switching between diesel and other types of fuels such as natural gas and biomass; and installation of heat recovery systems in these boilers. After implementation of VSD, the results obtained when reducing the speed of water pumps by 60% show that 4 GWh, 93.6% of energy, RM 863,375 and 2,160 ton of CO2 could be saved annually which all represent high energy saving, environmental and economic benefits. Also it has been found that when switching between diesel fuel and biomass gas by a percentage of 50% for both instead of using 100% of diesel fuel, 11,946 ton of CO2 and RM 1,872,532 could be saved annually. Finally installation of economizer has proven its viability with 2,529,779 KWh energy saving, RM 238,573 bill saving and 2,150 ton of CO2 per annul.