Energy Efficiency Program
July 2013
By Greg Chaplin
Bradken Overview
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Bradken® is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of differentiated
consumable and capital products to the mining and construction, rail and
transit, energy and general industrial markets
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As a leading heavy engineering company, Bradken can manufacture fully
machined cast iron and steel products from a mass of 0.5kg to over 25
tonnes
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Bradken is a publicly listed Company on the Australian Stock Exchange
(BKN)
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Founded in 1922 in Alexandria, Sydney (AUS) – Leslie Bradford & Jim
Kendall won money on a horse “Jack Findlay” and used the winnings to
establish Alloy Steel Syndicate to build the foundry.
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Global Corporate Centre located in Newcastle, NSW (AUS)
©2011BRADKEN®
Bradken – Environmental Basics
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All Bradken’s major facilities in Australia & UK are independently certified to
ISO14001, other sites at implementation stage.
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Bradken’s steel foundries account for 90% of the Company’s total energy usage
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Electricity ~ 60% and Natural Gas ~ 40%
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Australian energy use ~ 1.15 Peta Joule & 139,300 t CO2e
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Australian energy costs ~ 5-8% of costs
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Approximately 92% of all cast products are produced from scrap steel
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Product Stewardship – Buy Back Scheme
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Foundry sand used up to 10 times
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Used foundry sand often used by other industries (beneficial reuse)
©2011BRADKEN®
Foundry Processes
Bradken foundries use a range of
modern technologies including:
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©2011BRADKEN®
CAD/CAM
3D Modelling
Discrete Element Modelling
Dynamic Simulation
Analysis
Finite Element Analysis
Virtual Prototyping
Casting simulation
Robotic Manufacturing
EEO First Round
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Bradken identified it used more than 0.5 PJ, registered and submitted the
assessment plan
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Bradken used four separate energy consultants to audit seven of its
foundries with the intention of ending up with four different sets of
recommendations. Overall, the ideas were very similar:
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Savings in GJ and tons CO2e identified were very similar between auditors
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Upgrade cost estimates varied significantly (up to a factor of five)
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Savings of 10-17% in GJ and costs were identified
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Factors affecting first round
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Age of equipment
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Retrofitting costs & difficulty
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Training & awareness
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Accuracy of estimates
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Sub metering
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GFC
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Company growth
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International competition & Value of the Australian dollar
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Productivity, quality and safety improvements
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Environmental demands - NIMBY
©2011BRADKEN®
Bradken Growth - 2006 to 2013
Bradken has experienced significant growth through:
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The acquisition of existing foundries in the Australia, UK, USA,
Canada, Malaya and New Zealand
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New fabrication facilities in China
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Commissioning new foundry in China
Production
Employees
Revenue
Foundries - Australia
Foundries - International
©2011BRADKEN®
2006
2012
56,000 t
147,600 t
2500
6250
$548 M
$1,451 M
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Energy Performance overall GJ/t - Australia
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©2011BRADKEN®
Changes in overall energy use per tonne of product
EEO Round 2 - Key Element 1 & 2 – Leadership & People
For the second round of EEO audits Bradken has:
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Updated Environmental Policy in 2011
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Added Energy & GHG Policy in 2011
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Updated Corporate Environmental Goals to include specific goal to reduce
energy use per ton of product by 2% per year.
– Consistent with UK Climate Change Agreement
– US sites set goal at 2.5% - US DoE “Better Buildings, Better Plants
Program”
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Utilised internal and external resources to develop internal knowledge,
awareness and skills.
©2011BRADKEN®
EEO Round 2 – Key Elements 3 & 4 - Assessment &
Identification
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Internal audits where practical – combine energy, raw material & waste
audits
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Developed own checklists & utilise US DoE tools
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Purchased thermal image cameras, flue gas analysers, compressed air
leak detection equipment for internal use
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Update previous audits with better monitoring
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Utilise extensive publicly available information from
– US DoE & AFS - various
– UK Carbon Trust & DEFRA & CTI - various
– Environment Canada - various
– European Commission “Best Available Techniques in the Smitheries and Foundries
Industry”
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Bring in external specialist consultants eg. arc furnace specialists (July
2012) where needed
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Benchmarking across Bradken’s 19 foundries
©2011BRADKEN®
EEO Round 2 – Key Elements 3 & 4 – DATA
INTERNATIONAL COSTS
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EEO Round 2 – Key Elements 3 & 4 – DATA
BENCHMARKING
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EEO Round 2 – Key Elements 3 & 4 – DATA - GAS
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Gas use ~40 % of total GJ - 80 to 93% in heat treatment
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Heat Treatment has specific quality requirements – heat castings to
specific temperatures for specific amounts of time.
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Thermal imagery used to identify hot spots.
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New ovens 30% more efficient with recuperative burners & pulse firing
than same sized oven with conventional burners & controls
©2011BRADKEN®
EEO Round 2 – Key Elements 3 & 4 – DATA - GAS
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Ladle Heaters use 7 to 20% of site gas
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Heated to as hot as practical to carry molten metal from furnace to moulds
and pour metal into moulds.
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“State of the art” – oxy fuel burners – up to 50% gas savings (ref
FOUNDRYBENCH – Europe) – one installed OS that demonstrates these
savings.
©2011BRADKEN®
EEO Round 2 –– DATA - Electricity
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Equipment Electricity use
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EEO Round 2 – DATA - Furnaces
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Melting Furnace Efficiency Factors
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Operators, Tap to tap times
Furnace size, Alloys, Scrap Quality
Age of furnaces - 1930s to 1990s
“Furnace Whisperer”
EEO Round 2 – Key Elements 3 & 4 – DATA Furnaces
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Different steel alloys have different melting efficiencies
Product design affects Yield
Starting from cold - 20% extra
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EEO Round 2 – DATA – Compressed Air
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Compressed electricity use while compressed air leaks are fixed.
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Factors Affecting Decisions
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New foundry in China
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Sub metering
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International Competition
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Clean Technology Food & Foundry Program – 33%
– Sub metering & power factor
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US Funding – Tacoma Compressed Air Project
– Cost $765k – Incentive $536k => 70%
– Annual Saving $130k and 3,148,285 KWh
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Energy Costs and Carbon Tax
©2011BRADKEN®
Carbon Tax
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UK Carbon Tax
– Tax on electricity offset by Climate Change Agreement (reduce energy use
per ton by 2% per year)
– Low CO2e t/KWhr factor
– Low impact – (site managers) – changes may come
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New Zealand Carbon Tax
– Increase in LPG costs
– Not detectable in electricity - low CO2e t/KWhr factor
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Australian Carbon tax (plus transmission charges)
– Estimated $3.5 million
– To date price rises for electricity 8 to 34%
– LRECs, SRECs also a carbon tax
– July 2014 ???
©2011BRADKEN®
EEO Round 2 – KE 6 - Communicating Outcomes
Bradken Eco-Efficiency Games - 2012
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Bradken benchmarked all 18 steel foundries KPIs against each other and
ranked performances
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KPIs were:
– Energy => GJ/t, $/t, GHG/t
– Key resources => t/t (scrap metal, alloys, sands, water, manhours/t)
– Waste => t/t, $/t product, $/t waste
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Gave overall performance levels and winners were:
• GOLD MEDAL => Adelaide, SA
• SILVER MEDAL => Mont Joli – Quebec, Canada
• BRONZE MEDAL => Henderson, WA
USE LESS, WASTE LESS, COST LESS
©2011BRADKEN®
USE LESS, WASTE LESS, COST LESS
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THOSE WHO DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT
IT (??)
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DO NOT RE-INVENT THE WHEEL
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BENCHMARKING
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TRAINING & AWARENESS
©2011BRADKEN®