Potential energy saving of Malaysia manufacturing industry – case study on powdered metallurgy sintering factory

Abstract

The energy consumption in industrial sector has always been high all-time in the nation as well as around the world. Because of that, energy saving have become an essential topic of interests in this industrial sector as the energy price keeps increasing over the years. Research has shown that electrical power demand has experienced an exponential inclining rate over the years due to rapid economic development. In the case of an uncontrolled planning and power wastage in the near future, the industrial sector will experience frequent power shortages and costly utility expenses which indirectly leads to higher operational costs. In this project, study of potential energy saving aims to reduce electric power consumption of a Malaysian industry in sintered metallurgy to about 5% to 10%. by identifying the major consumption equipment through site visits, the overall energy efficiency can be potentially increased. After performing research and market study in potential energy saving schemes on such equipment, the reduction rate, rate of return, return of investment and payback period are then calculated. The study has found that proposed energy saving is feasible in the furnace and air compressors as they are the major equipment which ranks the highest of the overall consumption. This research clearly shows that the proposed energy saving schemes is able to achieve energy saving of at least 5%.