When a European industrial manufacturer evaluated exhaust treatment options for a new oven installation handling 10,000 Nm³/h of process air, WK conducted a detailed energy balance and total cost of ownership analysis comparing a direct thermal oxidizer (TNV) against a regenerative thermal oxidizer system with integrated oven heating (RTO+TOB).
While the TNV offered a lower capital cost, the analysis demonstrated that the RTO system recovered 918 kW more energy per operating hour, with energy returned directly to the production process as preheated air, reducing the plant’s overall thermal energy demand.
- 918 kW additional energy recovery per hour with RTO vs TNV
- 5,067 MWh/a total additional energy returned to process annually
- ~€253,000/a value of additional recovered energy at prevailing gas prices
- ~€215,000/a net annual cost advantage of RTO after accounting for higher fuel consumption and lifecycle costs
- ~1.4 years simple payback on the additional capital investment in the RTO system
WK’s pre-contract energy analysis provides customers with a technically grounded basis for system selection, ensuring that capital investment decisions account for total operational cost over the full lifetime of the equipment, not capital cost alone.