INDUSTRIAL ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The City Location
Summary
During the past decades, energy efficiency is treated as a key factor providing the competitive ability of companies and even whole countries. Energy efficiency possesses a unique potential to promote energy security, economic growth, and even improvement of human health and prosperity. In many countries, investments in energy efficiency have already provided a decrease of the energy consumption, exceeding the manufacture of any other energy resource.
The modern manufacturing company should be mainly concerned with the method of reducing energy consumption and at the same time reduce carbon emission. This is highlighted clearly in the EU regulation on energy management. To achieve this, effective energy systems, audit on the type of energy costs and emissions have to be done from time to time in companies. The various equipment’s energy use should be analyzed and appropriate upgrade realized for cost effectiveness, energy efficiency and low carbon emissions.
Structure of the Report
This report is going to analyze the energy use in this small scale pie manufacturing company of 150 people. The various energy conversion systems are going to be discussed together with the major losses and efficiencies at this sections. A proposal on the most effective way of reducing the energy use and requirement is going to be proposed and the results of various energy use tabulated. This report aims to give the manufacturing company a glimpse of their energy use and methods of reducing the costs and carbon emissions.
Energy Using Process of the System
The best way to quantify the usage of energy within the factory is by use of the Sankey diagram. The energy conservation between the various processes is analyzed and finally compared to find the average energy efficiency of the processes . In any manufacturing factory, there is always one major equipment or processes that consume the most amount of energy in the system. A typical pie producing factory has the various sections in its product life cycle. It goes through the mixing process where the ingredients are mixed by an electric mixer. The pie then moves to the refrigeration process where dividing and pressing process using a sheet machine takes place. The pie is finally filled then baked in the oven. These various processes have automated machines for effective performance and the various machines have a different energy requirement. Other types of equipment are the conveyor belts, auto-bake system and the packaging system. Analysis of the systems that uses electricity which are the chillers, conveyors, cutters, baking and pie filling machines. The baking process in the oven will consume the most amount of energy. This is because, during the baking process, a larger and consistent amount of energy is needed. There is also a lot of losses from the process of baking in terms of heat energy lost to the surrounding. The heat produced from the baking process is huge implying a large loss of energy as can be analyzed from the Sankey diagram on energy flows . The conveyors will use little energy in the process since a small motor can be used to run the machine. The chillers and refrigerators have little energy loss compared to the baking process but also consumes a considerable amount of energy.. The figure below shows sample Sankey diagram for the US in trillion units for food and beverage manufacturing plants and thus shows the processes that consume the most amount of energy. The figures show the form of energy that is prevalent in pollution and is consumed more thus a way of reducing these types of energies serves to better any factory
Sankey diagram for US food manufacturing 1
Sankey diagram for the general company 1 from
Main flow of energy and efficiencies
The flow of energy into the factory can be modelled by the various materials and the conversion of the materials and energy into different energy. The energy flow into the factory is first chemical energy. The oil brought into the factory will be burned to convert its chemical energy into thermal energy in the boiler. The energy is further lost by being released as hot gases. The electrical energy used to run the motors is converted into kinetic energy and finally mechanical for the performance of the various conveyor belts. The typical efficiency of the boiler using oil as a source of fuel is 0.9 since most of the energy is lost in the form of heat energy. The electrical energy to the conveyor belts, chillers and refrigeration system generally have a higher efficiency due to less loss of the energy in the form of heat. The conversion efficiency of chemical to thermal energy in the boiler is 0.90-0.98, electrical transmission energy to the various equipment’s that are powered by electricity is 0.91 while conversion of electrical to mechanical energy at the conveyors is given by 0.935 . The electric motors in the system operate at an efficiency of 0.7-0.8 . There is also a conversion of electrical energy into light energy in the factory. The main losses occur at the boiler or the chemical energy conversion to thermal energy.
light & heat flow- manufacturing plant 1
Suitability of Renewable Energy and Others
For small and medium scale factory like the one in question, the most suitable energy source of energy should have the capability to be produced cheaply. But it should maintain a high level of reliability and technological advancement. Renewable energy like having a solar panel will effectively work for this company. This is suitable for the companies that do not have a huge energy demand and thus, several solar panels can effectively work to run the various machines. Running costs will be reduced and thus suitable for this process. Use of renewable energy will reduce the carbon waste to the environment in accordance with the EU laws on energy usage.
Reusing the waste energy like heat energy will serve to reduce the cost of energy. This can be done by harnessing the heat from the waste materials to the boiler room for efficient use. This will have reduced the level of emissions of the gases to the atmosphere and converting waste energy into fuel energy is the best way of both reducing costs and achieving a zero carbon efficiency in the factory.Technologies that can be used to achieve this in this plant may include anaerobic digestion, gasification and pyrolysis . Also, waste heat energy recovery from the boilers, the chillers and refrigeration plants. Providing an opportunity to reuse of processes like cooling and heating with the same water will reduce on the cost of energy consumed
Energy in petrochemical materials used to power the factory has a higher level of carbon storage thus its combustion will lead to increased CO2 emissions . The other method of reducing the energy consumption of this factory is to replace the use of oil in the boiler section with a cheaper source of energy like electricity. The by-product of the burned materials heavily pollutes the environment thus the need to use a clean source of energy. This will have reduced the cost and emission of carbon dioxide. By eliminating this, the overall cost of handling materials will be reduced.
You can also recover the energy lost by the factory by recovering the kinetic energy of the system in the motor braking process. This is achieved by using variable speed drives with regenerative capabilities to capture some of the braking energy
Conclusion
It is always great to lay down a strategy that reduces energy consumption in any factory for better returns. This can be in terms of the upgrade on the present technology or just the minimization of some losses in the existing infrastructures. For a medium scale factory, energy choices like renewable energy can be enough for better operation of the processes with reduced cost. Also while designing or using the energy system, a lot of concern has to be put on the amount of carbon dioxide emission in line with the laid down targets by the international energy organization.
Appendices
Spending per employee on energy 1
Total CO2 emissions index 2004 1
Resource coverage and price 1
Sankey for US in 2010 1
Food manufacturing Sankey in US 1
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