Comparison of natural gas fired and induction heating furnaces

Abstract

Generally, in steel processing systems, steels are heated via induction or combustion furnaces. Natural gas fired furnaces have installation costs advantage while the induction furnaces have the advantages of less scale formation on the surface of the workpiece as well as less environmental pollutions. The operation cost of both systems is a vital argument to be solved. In this paper, a natural gas fired and induction heating furnaces of a forging process were studied. Thermodynamic analysis was performed for the furnaces which heat the steel workpiece up to 1,300 °C. The energy performances of both systems were analyzed and compared. It is concluded that, instead of a natural gas fired or an induction furnace, a hybrid furnace may save more energy and cost. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.