A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Simulation-based assessment of energy use in factories
The increasing awareness of the limited resources of our planet is demanding that industrial companies improve the sustainability of their business strategies and urging decision-makers to adopt environmentally friendly manufacturing practices. In this respect, identifying ways to improve energy use in factories is subject to ongoing research. Recently, factory simulation models have been proposed to better understand the interdependencies of energy use in the different peripheries of a factory system. However, the complexity of the proposed factory simulation models and their inability to jointly evaluate multiple energy-related performance metrics have limited their application in practice. This work extends the scope of existing factory simulation models with a particular focus on on-site energy supply systems and extends conventional energy performance metrics to include non-energy benefits. It also improves upon the prevailing trial-and-error approaches currently used to evaluate improvement measures within these models. The findings show that an assessment procedure that combines a multi-peripheral factory model with a comprehensive evaluation process using design of simulation experiments can improve both the comprehensiveness and generalizability of the obtained simulation results. The results show that by applying the proposed methodology, combined energy-saving potentials of 38% can be achieved for the factory building and its technical building systems. At the same time, the non-energy benefits in terms of improved occupational safety can be increased by 40%. Starting from this baseline, further improvements are possible with regard to the energy supply system setup. Using the proposed evaluation process, it is possible to further improve various energy performance metrics of the factory, including energy costs (-10%), energy demand (-7%), and CO2 emissions (-11%). In addition, the share of renewables on the energy supplied was increased by 16% and energy flexibility by 31%. The results of this work should promote the understanding of the complex interdependencies of energy use in factories and advance the transition of the corresponding factory simulation models and related evaluation processes into planning practice.
Simulation-based assessment of energy use in factories
The increasing awareness of the limited resources of our planet is demanding that industrial companies improve the sustainability of their business strategies and urging decision-makers to adopt environmentally friendly manufacturing practices. In this respect, identifying ways to improve energy use in factories is subject to ongoing research. Recently, factory simulation models have been proposed to better understand the interdependencies of energy use in the different peripheries of a factory system. However, the complexity of the proposed factory simulation models and their inability to jointly evaluate multiple energy-related performance metrics have limited their application in practice. This work extends the scope of existing factory simulation models with a particular focus on on-site energy supply systems and extends conventional energy performance metrics to include non-energy benefits. It also improves upon the prevailing trial-and-error approaches currently used to evaluate improvement measures within these models. The findings show that an assessment procedure that combines a multi-peripheral factory model with a comprehensive evaluation process using design of simulation experiments can improve both the comprehensiveness and generalizability of the obtained simulation results. The results show that by applying the proposed methodology, combined energy-saving potentials of 38% can be achieved for the factory building and its technical building systems. At the same time, the non-energy benefits in terms of improved occupational safety can be increased by 40%. Starting from this baseline, further improvements are possible with regard to the energy supply system setup. Using the proposed evaluation process, it is possible to further improve various energy performance metrics of the factory, including energy costs (-10%), energy demand (-7%), and CO2 emissions (-11%). In addition, the share of renewables on the energy supplied was increased by 16% and energy flexibility by 31%. The results of this work should promote the understanding of the complex interdependencies of energy use in factories and advance the transition of the corresponding factory simulation models and related evaluation processes into planning practice.
Simulation-based assessment of energy use in factories
Simulationsgestützte Bewertung des Energieeinsatzes in Fabriken
Weeber, Max (author) / Universität Stuttgart (host institution)
2022
Miscellaneous
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
624
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