West Virginia University experts are continuing to reach out to the region’s manufacturing industries with key information on how to assess and improve energy consumption in complex facilities with another free seminar – this time on process heating systems.

WVU’s Industries of the Future-WV and the WVU Industrial Assessment Center will present the free training session from 3-4 p.m. Friday, March 2 in room 101A of WVU’s National Research Center for Coal and Energy on the Evansdale Campus. It will also be broadcast via the Internet as a special webinar presentation. There are limited slots available for the online session, but plenty of space is available at the live event.
Interested persons should contact Kathleen Cullen at Kathleen.Cullen@mail.wvu.edu to attend or participate in the webinar.

According to Dr. Wafik Iskander, associate director of the WVU Industrial Assessment Center who will conduct the seminar, the event is designed for industrial energy coordinators, plant managers and engineers – people who operate, buy and/or maintain heat processing equipment in industrial settings. The kind of equipment and products classified as heat processing equipment includes: ovens, dryers, heaters, heat exchangers, heat transfer fluids, burners, temperature and process controls, temperature sensors, power controls, fans and blowers, and chillers.

“We are aiming to provide information about available methods to reduce fuel use and costs and improve energy efficiency in furnaces,” Iskander explained. “We are going to do that by teaching how to assess energy consumption in furnace sections or subsystems and how to gage the potential of available methods of improvement.”

A key part of the presentation will consist of an introduction to PHAST and its use to survey energy consumption in furnaces, boilers and heaters, and analyze effect of energy saving methods. PHAST stands for Process Heating Assessment and Survey Tool which is used to introduce methods to improve thermal efficiency of heating equipment. This tool helps industrial users survey process heating equipment that consumes fuel, steam, or electricity, and identifies the most energy-intensive equipment. The tool can be used to perform a heat balance that identifies major areas of energy use under various operating conditions and test “what-if” scenarios for various options to reduce energy use.

The seminar targets a number of industries common in the West Virginia region including: ethanol/biodiesel fuel production; pulp/paper/forest products; chemicals and petrochemicals; electronics; finishing; food processing and production; packaging and printing; pharmaceuticals and plastics/rubber.

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CONTACT: Kathleen Cullen, Industries of the Future-WV program coordinator
304.293.2867, ext. 5426, Kathleen.Cullen@mail.wvu.edu

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