Exergy Consumption Through the Life Cycle of Ceramic Parts

Exergy is a measure that can commonly deal with the quantification of a variety of resources, products, and energy coming in and going out of the manufacturing systems. In this study, exergy analysis was conducted on a ceramic tube and a steel heater protection tube used in aluminum casting, and the amount of exergies consumed through their life cycle were calculated. In the production stage, the ceramic heater tube consumes much higher exergy than the steel one; however, analysis through the life cycle in seven years shows that exergy consumptions for the ceramic and steel tubes were 1223 and 1585 GJ, respectively. These results reveal that ceramics are effective in the reduction of environmental burden.