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Modelling Energy Consumption to support Low Carbon Manufacturing
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Start - |
2008- |
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Research Conducted by: | |
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Keywords: |
Low carbon manufacturing, energy rationalisation, energy modelling |
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Industrial collaborators: |
to be confirmed |
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Aims & Objectives: |
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As legislation tighten on carbon emissions and energy usage, future manufacturing businesses will have to adapt to the concept of ‘lean energy’ based on the most efficient use of the processes within their production facilities. It is argued that despite the predicted growth in renewable energy technologies, in the short term, manufacturing activities will still rely heavily on electricity generated from fossil fuels. The aims of this project are:
• To review existing manufacturing energy management and modelling research.
• To collate, catalogue and analyse the energy consumptions of various manufacturing processes and operations.
• To develop an energy model using the collected data to demonstrate the relationships between process activities and embodied product energy.
• To investigate the feasibility of including embodied product energy as part of design and manufacturing decisions.
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Brief Description |
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As legislations tighten on carbon emissions and energy usage, future manufacturing businesses will have to adapt to the concept of ‘lean energy’ based on the most energy efficient use of the processes within their production facilities. It is argued that despite the predicted growth in renewable energy technologies, the future manufacturing activities will still rely heavily on electricity generated from fossil fuels.
In terms of end user, the manufacturing and commercial sector (catalogued within Table 1 as ‘business’) continue to produce the greatest CO2 emissions. The reduction in energy consumption has historically been promoted within manufacturing as a means of saving money, with figures estimating that a 20% cut in energy costs representing the same bottom line benefit as 5% increase in sales.
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Table 1: Carbon dioxide emissions by end user (MtC), adapted from (HM Government 2006)
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The proposed model will represent the ‘Direct’ energy used to manufacture a single product by considering production activities and its relation to upstream processes as well as ‘Indirect’ energy usage from the use of infrastructure and logistics, which will form the total embodied energy of the product (See Figure 1). | |
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Figure1: Framework for Embodied Product Energy | |
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By considering energy utilisation across the whole production system, there is a potential to enable manufacturing facilities to go beyond the incremental improvements achievable via existing facility energy management systems. The major beneficiaries of this research will ultimately be the manufacturing organisations across a wide range of industrial sectors, and in particular those industries with energy intensive product and processes. | |
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For More information please contact Yingying Seow: Y.Seow@lboro.ac.uk | |
