Updated : October 2020
Stenters are one of the most energy consuming equipment, which are used in textile finishing for drying and heat treating the fabric. The process uses thermal energy, but steam and other heating media are also considered. Studies show that various waste heat recovery options can be considered in stenter machines as the exhaust airflow still has a valuable energy content.
This study proposes the use of an air curtain to improve the machine insulation by regenerative air preheating, through use of heat recovered from the flue gases, as well as prevention of cold air ingestion. It involved development of a computational flow dynamics model to analyse the effect of air curtains on the same. Experiments were conducted to check the total energy consumption with and without air curtains on a single module of the stenter machines.
Results showed that installation of regenerative air curtains in stenter machines could enable improvement of the machine performance, with reduction of burner heat supply and humid polluted air dispersion to the surrounding environment, limitation of air ingestion from outside and a proper distribution of air temperature around the fabric.
Read More: Air curtains for heat recovery opportunities in stenters - a model study
Air curtains for textile stenter machines
Waste heat recovery in textile stenters
Regenerative air-preheating in textile stenters
Novel energy saving solutions in textile stenters
Air curtains for cold inlet flow prevention in textile stenters
