The possibility of energy savings by means of minimizing fuel consumption in polyamide-6, i.e. nylon-6, production is investigated. Reducing energy consumption for processes with condensate and exhaust gases heat recovery in energy management studies presents a growth of process efficiency and contemporary decreasing of thermal pollution. The condensate heat recovery option results in fuel savings of 8.2%. At the same time, the thermal pollution is diminished by 89.3%. Using an economizer and condensate heat recovery for feed water preheating, the anthracite consumption is reduced by 16.9 1%, and the flue gases are cooled 132.8 degrees. If an air preheater is applied for combustion air preheating together with condensate heat recovery, the fuel savings becomes 15.3'Yo. Now, the flue gases temperature is reduced 170 degrees. In the system, including boiler feed tank, economizer and air preheater, the total fuel savings reached 19.4%, while the flue gases exhaust temperature diminished 195 degrees. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.