Study on Thermal Efficiency of Salt Incubator with Waste Heat Recovery in the Rock Salt Boiling Process

Much waste heat is generated in the rock salt boiling process and is usually discharged directly from a stack and the exhaust air. Recovering heat from the exhaust air by the heat exchanger is a promising technology that improves energy utilization efficiency and reduces exhaust emissions. A rock salt incubator based on a heat recovery process was proposed in the present study to recover the thermal energy from the exhaust gas of a small and medium enterprise. The present study investigates the thermal efficiency test with heat recovery in the rock salt boiling process experimentally and numerically. The wet salt crystal of each container was performed with three inlets hot flue gas temperature to determine the thermal performance of the salt incubator. The thermal performance obtained from the experimental are 33.02%, 36.63%, and 38.06% for inlet exhaust temperature of 150 degrees C, 250 degrees C, and 350 degrees C, respectively. Good agreement from the comparison between the predicted and measured results (error 5.24%) demonstrates that a numerical model is appropriate for investigating the thermal system's energy efficiency analysis and evaluating different configurations and solutions to fulfill the industry requirements. Future studies should be designed to explore how more thermal performance reduces environmental and global warming problems.