Advanced Design of Integrated Heat Recovery and Supply System Using Heated Water Storage for Textile Dyeing Process

Abstract

Heat recovery from a high-temperature wastewater is the major concern in the conventional textile industry. However, limited space in the textile plant is an important constraint for the process enhancement. Therefore, an easily applicable heat recovery system with a small amount of additional equipment to the existing dyeing process is required. To meet the needs from the industry, this study suggests an integrated heat recovery and supply system consisting of single heat exchanger and single storage tank using freshwater as a thermal carrier to utilize the reusable heat in the wastewater. Freshwater is stored in a tank after direct heat exchange with wastewater and is supplied to the next dyeing process. Three different designs of the integrated system were compared based on the lower limit of the wastewater temperature: above 50 °C, 40 °C, and 30 °C for Cases 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The energy and energy flow analyses showed Case 2 to be well balanced between the quality and quantity of the recovered heat, and there was no heat loss via drainage. The heat demand for Case 2 was 795.5 kW, which was the lowest among all cases. Furthermore, an economic analysis showed that the total cost for Case 2 was reduced by 63.2% compared with the base case. Despite the use of an additional heat exchanger and water storage tank, the proposed system was more economical because of the reduced operating costs. Finally, a detailed analysis was conducted by determining the more efficient temperature for heat recovery and supply.