A hierarchical framework for concurrent assessment of energy and water efficiency in manufacturing systems

Mousavi, Smaeil; Kara, Sami; Kornfeld, Bernard

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.074

Cited by 30 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Industrial manufacturing is the largest end-use sector, accounting for more than 30% of final energy demand [50]. The need to reduce energy-related environmental impacts makes the energy management processes a key factor for sustainable production [51]. The literature points out an abundance of energy performance indicators (EPIs), but only some of them are fully applicable in a manufacturing context.…”

Section: Inventory Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of a Lifecycle-Oriented Environmental and Economic Indicators Framework for the Mechanical Manufacturing Industry

et al. 2022

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As a result of the worldwide depletion of natural resources, increased energy use, and environmental, economic, and social imbalance, organizations are working to identify the proper strategies supporting the continuous reduction of their impacts. While this trend is fundamentally agreed upon in the literature, several manufacturing industries still fail to identify which elements most influence their contributions to the impact of sustainability and how to easily manage the calculation of these effects within a manufacturing system. The purpose of this article is to incorporate sustainability practices into manufacturing by developing a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for assessing and improving environmental and economic management practices at the corporate and production level. The definition of the framework began with in-depth research of the leading indicators and framework types in the literature, integrating the most exploited industrial standards to make them easily acceptable in the industrial domain. Then, to provide a broad view of company behavior, the framework has been designed to take either an inventory and impact point of view, thus providing indicators for the online monitoring of the company operations, or assessing their impacts in an LCA-LCC perspective. In selecting the indicators and the definition of the framework structure, five industrial cases covering different business sectors were involved in identifying the most critical indicators in terms of calculability and defining a structure that would allow for their application in various business situations. Therefore, the defined framework has been validated at a conceptual level, thus laying the basis for future quantitative validation. Twenty key performance indicators (KPIs) for assessing the sustainability of manufacturing firms have been created based on the 163 indicators studied.

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Section: Inventory Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of a Lifecycle-Oriented Environmental and Economic Indicators Framework for the Mechanical Manufacturing Industry

et al. 2022

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“…By combining with an efficiency concept, such a structured procedure can be rendered more effective, through the identification of areas to concentrate on (hotspots) in ideating improvement proposals. At the whole system level the resource efficiency of a manufacturing system can be defined as the ratio of some measure of output, for example, value, to the amount of resource used to create that output (Mousavi, Kara, and Kornfeld 2016). However, if efficiency is to be used as a diagnostic for system improvement some useful definition of what constitutes efficient use of the resource at a sub-system level would be helpful.…”

Section: Resource Use Efficiency Concepts and Manufacturing System Immentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The paper mentions hotspots but does not define a formal method of identifying them. Mousavi, Kara, and Kornfeld (2016) also referred to efficiency of water use. They introduced a multilevel model of a factory to consider machine states and production schedules.…”

Section: Resource Use Efficiency Concepts and Manufacturing System Immentioning

confidence: 99%

A decision tool for improving manufacturing water usage efficiency

Sachidananda

Rahimifard

Webb

2020

International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing

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The environmental drivers for improving the efficiency of water usage in manufacturing industry are strong. However, while a water reduction programme can initially produce worthwhile benefits with moderate effort, further significant reductions require change to product, process or operational planning. The investment risk represented by such changes may act as a disincentive for companies to proceed with water conservation efforts. To improve the situation a methodology and a supporting simulation tool for decision-making in water reduction investment is introduced in this work. The methodology is based on the concept of water usage efficiency introduced in previous work, which allows the identification of hotspots where the maximum gains from intervention can be achieved. The tool further supports a structured approach to ranking the feasibility and benefits of proposed interventions. A report is presented on application of the tool to the operations of a food-manufacturing company in India. The area with the greatest potential for improvement was identified as being water directly involved in the process of rice cooking, with the corresponding highest ranked intervention option being pre-soaking the rice. This option delivers the desired efficiency benefits while being lower cost than more technically involved interventions such as introducing water treatment equipment.

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“…In terms of modelling water flows, the scope of this study was limited since it was based on the first law of thermodynamics and only the thermal energy content of water was considered, without any consideration of water quality. Mousavi et al [14] also developed a modelling approach based on the first law of thermodynamics, for the simultaneous assessment of energy and water resources at a factory, but the consumption of quality water as a resource was not considered. Hernandez and Cullen [15] argue that the first law-based efficiency metrics are not suitable for holistic analysis approaches because such methods do not allow an objective comparison between the use of resources of a varied nature.…”

Section: Exergy-based Resource Accounting In Manufacturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource accounting in factories and the energy-water nexus

Khattak

Greenough

2017

Int J Adv Manuf Technol

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A manufacturing system comprises production processes and building services, both of which are supplied by different energy carriers as well as raw materials and water. These resources interact according to complex relationships and are converted into products for sale and waste flows. Holistic resource accounting allows the analyst to consider the dynamic relationships between these components, including the strong interdependence between energy and water, which has been called the energy-water nexus. Exergy analysis is a method that accounts for mass and both the quantity and quality of energy, while allowing analysis on a common basis, and for this reason, it is used increasingly to analyse resource consumption in manufacturing systems; however, it has rarely been used to consider water flows alongside energy and material flows. The main contribution of this paper is the presentation of modelling water flows in terms of exergy in the context of sustainable manufacturing. Using this technique in combination with previously developed exergy-based methods, the result is a truly holistic resource accounting method for factories based on exergy analysis that incorporates water flows. The method is illustrated using a case study of a food factory in which a 4.1% reduction in resource use is shown to be possible by employing anaerobic digester in an effluent water treatment process. The benefits of this technology option would have been underestimated compared to the benefits of waste heat capture if an analysis based on mass and energy balances alone had been used. The scientific value of this paper is the demonstration of the relatively high exergy content of effluent flows, which should therefore be regarded as potentially valuable resources. The analytical method presented is therefore of value to a wide range of industries beyond the food industry.

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A hierarchical framework for concurrent assessment of energy and water efficiency in manufacturing systems

Cited by 30 publications

References 26 publications

Design of a Lifecycle-Oriented Environmental and Economic Indicators Framework for the Mechanical Manufacturing Industry

Design of a Lifecycle-Oriented Environmental and Economic Indicators Framework for the Mechanical Manufacturing Industry

A decision tool for improving manufacturing water usage efficiency

Resource accounting in factories and the energy-water nexus

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