Heat Treatment of Steel 1.1730 with Concentrated Solar Energy

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses research conducted with the purpose of developing the use of solar energy in the heat treatment of steels. For this, a vertical axis solar furnace called at Plataforma Solar de Almeria was adapted such as to allow control of the heating and cooling processes of samples made from 1.1730 steel. Thus temperature variation in pre-set points of the heated samples could be monitored in correlation with the working parameters: the level of solar radiation and implicitly the energy used the conditions of sample exposed to solar radiation, and the various protections and cooling mediums.The recorded data allowed establishing the types of treatments applied for certain working conditions. The distribution of hardness, as the representative feature resulting from heat treatment, was analysed on all sides of the treated samples. In correlation with the time-temperature-transformation diagram of 1.1730 steel, the measured values confirmed the possibility of using solar energy in all types of heat treatment applied to this steel. In parallel the efficiency of using solar energy was analysed in comparison to the energy obtained by burning methane gas for the heat treatment for the same set of samples. The analysis considered energy consumption, productivity and the impact on the environment. Thanks to various data obtained through developed experiences, which cover a wide range of thermic treatments applied steels 1.1730 model, we can certainly state that this can be a solid base in using solar energy in applications of thermic treatment at a high industrial level.

Potential environmental impacts of photovoltaic solar energy on industry

“…With the growth in energy demand in the industrial sector, researchers are forced to look for new ways to meet the development of energy demand (Dubey, Jadhav & Zakirova, 2013;Lamont & El Chaar, 2011). These energy demands are met in two ways: the use of non-renewable sources and renewable sources (Li et al, 2020;Stoicanescu et al, 2019).…”

“…Solar energy sources are abundant and more competitive than conventional fossil fuels in the generation of electricity (Venkata Sai & Reddy, 2020). The rapid deployment of solar energy in the world is the result of ambitious political support, such as tariffs for energy generation and distribution and the abundant solar sources on the planet (Li, Liu, Jiang, & Chen, 2020;Stoicanescu et al, 2019).…”

“…Government R&D funds have been found by researchers to contribute to the popularization of solar photovoltaic energy by reducing costs and environmental impacts (HA et al, 2020;Stoicanescu et al, 2019;Corona, Bozhilova-Kisheva, Olsen & San Miguel, 2017).…”

“…In the literature, there have been a large number of studies analyzing clean sources for power generation development. The literature has been intensively focused on the following fields of clean energy sources: benefit analysis (Stoicanescu et al, 2019;Branker & Pearce, 2010); renewable structure (Venkata Sai & Reddy, 2020); economic return on investment (Grippo et al, 2014;Lamont & El Chaar, 2011) and cost analysis (Noh et al, 2020;Tan et al, 2012).…”

“…Therefore, the social scope, the inclusion of the development of sustainability to promote the use of clean energy (Hamid et al, 2016); stands out in the literature, since none of the evaluated studies has as main theme the social scope, that is, quality of life (Tan et al, 2012); social inequalities (Noh et al, 2020); clean and accessible energy for local communities (Venkata Sai & Reddy, 2020); reducing problems with dependence on fossil energies (Stoicanescu et al, 2019;Rey-Martínez et al, 2008); that is, a barrier in the sustainability dimension as the little incentive for the development of solar photovoltaic energy in the industrial sector, mainly in developing countries with this visible reality (Ha et al, 2020). The use of clean energy stimulates the growth of the economy, without environmental impacts (Korkmav et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Noh et al, 2020;Samaniego-Rascón et al, 2019;Hamid et al, 2016).…”