Specific Energy Consumption Analysis Model and Its Application in Typical Steel Manufacturing Process Original Research Article

Theoretical minimum and actual specific energy consumptions (SEC) of typical manufacturing process (SMP) were studied. Firstly, a process division of a typical SMP in question was conducted with the theory of SEC analysis. Secondly, an exergy analysis model of a subsystem consisting of several parallel processes and a SEC analysis model of SMP were developed. And finally, based on the analysis models, the SEC of SMP was analyzed by means of the statistical significance. The results show that the SEC of typical SMP comprises the theoretical minimum SEC and the additional SEC derived from the irreversibility; and the SMP has a theoretical minimum SEC of 6.74 GJ/t and an additional SEC of 19.32 GJ/t, which account for 25.88% and 74.12% of the actual SEC, respectively.