Cost-Energy Optimum Pathway for the UK Food Manufacturing Industry to Meet the UK National Emission Targets

Abstract

This paper investigates and outlines a cost-energy optimised pathway for the UK food manufacturing industry to attain the national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction target of 80%, relative to 1990 levels, by 2050. The paper employs the linear programming platform TIMES, and it models the current and future technology mix of the UK food manufacturing industry. The model considers parameters such as capital costs, operating costs, efficiency and the lifetime of technologies to determine the cheapest pathway to achieve the GHG emission constraints. The model also enables future parametric analyses and can predict the influence of different economic, trade and dietary preferences and the impact of technological investments and policies on emissions. The study showed that for the food manufacturing industry to meet the emission reduction targets by 2050 the use of natural gas as the dominant source of energy in the industry at present, will have to be replaced by decarbonised grid electricity and biogas. This will require investments in Anaerobic Digestion (AD), Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants driven by biogas and heat pumps powered by decarbonised electricity.

Programação linear aplicada na indústria e suas conexões com os objetivos de desenvolvimento sustentável

“…Um dos objetivos está relacionado às estratégias de investimento para a redução das emissões de carbono em uma rede de supermercados (AYOUB et al, 2019). Outra área de foco é a redução das emissões de gases poluentes e o aprimoramento da eficiência energética na indústria de alimentos, demandando uma reformulação de políticas dentro desse setor (Gowreesunker;Tassou;Atuonwu, 2018). Além disso, os estudos também exploram a substituição de caldeiras por eletricidade no aquecimento residencial (Vijay; Hawkes, 2017).…”

Assessing the New Product Development Process for the Industrial Decarbonization of Sustainable Economies

“…The effect of decarbonization activities on the economic development of the countries was also studied. Gowreesunker et al (2018), Fais et al (2016) and Maroto-Valer (2019) stated that decarbonization activities should be taken into consideration to achieve economic development. In addition, the issue of industrial decarbonization has been addressed by different researchers in the literature.…”

A PESTLE Analysis of Biofuels Energy Industry in Europe

“…The drive to switch to an alternative transportation fuel is to reduce the dependency on oil and decrease the pressure on the environment [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The targets set in the RED by the European Commission are to support the development of biofuels [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Most of the legislations that are developed to achieve these targets are based on life-cycle assessments which often only account for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) [15][16][17].…”