Abstract
Understanding the factors driving the implementation of energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems is crucial to improve industrial energy efficiency, given their low implementation rate. Starting from a thorough review of the literature, it is thus clear the need to support companies in the decision-making process by offering an innovative framework encompassing the most relevant factors to be considered when adopting energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems, inclusive of the impacts on the production resources and the operations of a company. The framework, designed following the perspective of the industrial decision-makers, has been validated, both theoretically and empirically, and preliminarily applied to a heterogeneous cluster of manufacturing industries. Results show that, beside operational, energetic, and economic factors, in particular contextual factors such as complexity, compatibility, and observability may highlight critical features of energy efficiency measures whose absence may change the outcome of a decision-making process. Further, greater awareness and knowledge over the important factors given by the implementation of the framework could play an important role in fostering the implementation of energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems. The paper concludes with further research avenues to further promote energy efficiency and sustainability oriented practices in the industrial sector.
Highlights
Industrial energy efficiency is widely recognized as crucial means to mitigate the growing final energy consumption, given that industry is responsible for 35% of global total final energy use [2]
Industrial respondents were generally aware of such characteristics, despite the fact that they were never considered as the most critical elements leading the adoption of efficiency measures (EEMs), with the exception being for A4; here compressed air belongs to the production process, which may act as a discriminant for the perceived importance of the role of compressed air
The willingness to understand the main factors that rule the adoption of EEMs on CompressedAir System (CAS) represents the driver that pushed toward the definition of the present framework
Summary
Industrial energy efficiency is widely recognized as crucial means to mitigate the growing final energy consumption (by more than 25% in the 2018–2040 time span [1]), given that industry is responsible for 35% of global total final energy use [2]. Previous research noted that SMEs suffer from a lack of internal competences as well as standard procedures hindering EEMs adoption [20,21,22] This is confirmed by studies on barriers to energy efficiency [17,20,23], which only partially refers to costs, rather pointing the attention on the lack of awareness and specific knowledge [22,23,24] as well as unperfect information and irrational behavior [25], suggesting that it is of primary importance to highlight the single factors driving the decision-making process over EEMs. The literature has so far identified assessment factors for EEMs (e.g., [26]); they are referred to other technologies other than CAS. A validation and preliminary application of the framework was conducted in several manufacturing enterprises (Sections 5 and 6, respectively), giving valuable insights and opening further research avenues (Section 7)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
