A methodological framework to benchmark and monitor energy performance in textile wet processing small and medium enterprises: Proposal and evaluation

Abstract

The customers of textile wet processing plants have committed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from outsourced manufacturing activities. The textile brands directly use specific energy consumption values to analyze and set steep, time-bound emission intensity reduction targets for the energy intensive textile wet processing plants. However, the direct use of specific energy consumption values to evaluate energy savings can be misleading. In this paper, the authors propose a methodological framework to systematically evaluate energy performance and monitor energy savings in the textile wet processing plants. Further, the approach was extended to analyze the energy performance monitoring practices and identify energy conservation measures. The proposed framework was developed based on thorough analysis of the manufacturing process of textile wet processing plants and the principles of ISO 50001. A textile wet processing plant was chosen as a case study for illustrating the effectiveness of the framework using multiple regression method. Bottom up approach for benchmarking was used and yet significantly simplified by the introduction of an innovative parameter “program mix factor” and thereby evaluate “equivalent specific energy consumption”. The predicted values for specific energy consumption were found to be within a close error range of ±10 % of the actual data. The proposed methodological framework is therefore innovative, simple and yet comprehensive to conduct internal benchmarking in textile wet processing plants. The textile brands are suggested to use equivalent specific energy consumption instead of specific energy consumption for energy performance monitoring of their textile wet processing plant suppliers. The authors also conducted a survey in fifteen textile wet processing plants to assess the prevailing energy monitoring practices. The results of the survey suggests that only 20 % of the plants are practicing basic level energy performance monitoring, while the remaining 80 % are at minimal level.