Challenges of digital industrial furnaces for energy efficiency using syngas from biomass

Industrial furnaces, as part of intensive industries, are facing new challenges to increase the efficiency, reliability and flexibility of their processes. They require a considerable amount of energy to accomplish heating and melting processes. Thus, multiple types of research have been focused on the optimisation of the energy consumption to address radical improvements in the competitiveness and energy, environmental, and cost performances at the system level. Furthermore, from a renewable energy perspective, a progressive substitution of natural gas by syngas from gasified biomass require an optimal monitoring and control system to regulate new burners as well as, an appropriate adaptation of existing ones. The use of syngas derived from biomass is not a widespread practice in industrial furnace scenarios. Therefore, this paper shows a brief review of creating a digital pre-heating industrial furnace, addressed from the perspective of monitoring and control system. Also, a precise analytical model divided into four primary sections is proposed: (i) burners system, (ii) isolation structure, (iii) energy recovery system, and (iv) load to be pre-heating. These models provide the foundation for a future hybrid models development to achieve higher efficiency levels using an accurate parametrisation of operational process variables, and a precise maintenance operation strategy. Finally, a broad discussion is exposed.