Energy-efficient Production Process Research Articles

Influence of PPD and Mass Scaling Parameter on the Goodness of Fit of Dry Ice Compaction Curve Obtained in Numerical Simulations Utilizing Smoothed Particle Method (SPH) for Improving the Energy Efficiency of Dry Ice Compaction Process

The urgent need to reduce industrial electricity consumption due to diminishing fossil fuels and environmental concerns drives the pursuit of energy-efficient production processes. This study addresses this challenge by investigating the Smoothed Particle Method (SPH) for simulating dry ice compaction, an intricate process poorly addressed by conventional methods. The Finite Element Method (FEM) and SPH have been dealt with by researchers, yet a gap persists regarding SPH mesh parameters’ influence on the empirical curve fit. This research systematically explores Particle Packing Density (PPD) and Mass Scaling (MS) effects on the agreement between simulation and experimental outputs. The Sum of Squared Errors (SSE) method was used for this assessment. By comparing the obtained FEM and SPH results under diverse PPD and MS settings, this study sheds light on the SPH method’s potential in optimizing the dry ice compaction process’s efficiency. The SSE based analyses showed that the goodness of fit did not vary considerably for PDD values of 4 and up. In the case of MS, a better fit was obtained for its lower values. In turn, for the ultimate compression force FC, an empirical curve fit was obtained for PDD values of 4 and up. That said, the value of MS had no significant bearing on the ultimate compression force FC. The insights gleaned from this research can largely improve the existing sustainability practices and process design in various energy-conscious industries.

Towards regenerative regional development in responsible value chains: an agentic response to recent crises

ABSTRACT In this paper, we empirically and theoretically present regenerative regional development in responsible value chains as an alternative to the prevailing traditional, neoliberal economic rationale of globalization. We develop the argument on the back of a longitudinal in-depth case study on actors’ engagement in the recurring crises in the maritime industry in Sunnmøre/Norway. The alternative perspective is an agentic response from the business community in the wake of recent crises. It builds on advanced manufacturing capabilities, automation and precision technologies, which promise local economic regeneration while reducing the reliance on low-cost labour, substantially cuts emissions through reduced long-haul transport, use of green energy and more energy-efficient production processes. To succeed, however, it calls for policies that promote the building of local capabilities and penalize practices causing environmental and social harm in global value chains, making it possible to move towards responsible and shorter value chains.

Current Status of Cellulosic and Nanocellulosic Materials for Oil Spill Cleanup

Recent developments in the application of lignocellulosic materials for oil spill removal are discussed in this review article. The types of lignocellulosic substrate material and their different chemical and physical modification strategies and basic preparation techniques are presented. The morphological features and the related separation mechanisms of the materials are summarized. The material types were classified into 3D-materials such as hydrophobic and oleophobic sponges and aerogels, or 2D-materials such as membranes, fabrics, films, and meshes. It was found that, particularly for 3D-materials, there is a clear correlation between the material properties, mainly porosity and density, and their absorption performance. Furthermore, it was shown that nanocellulosic precursors are not exclusively suitable to achieve competitive porosity and therefore absorption performance, but also bulk cellulose materials. This finding could lead to developments in cost- and energy-efficient production processes of future lignocellulosic oil spillage removal materials.

Energy footprint assessment in oil refineries based on green productivity techniques and tools, case study: Iran

In recent years, the environment has become a very vital issue concerning global trade. In the field of world trade, the main reason for paying attention to the subject of energy is the world government is inventing innovations to reduce climate change, growing costs, and to use natural resources optimally. In Iran, general consumption pattern reforms policies announced in 2010, and energy saving by applying a balanced set of price and non-price measures to continuously reduce the country's “energy intensity index” to at least one-half of the same year by the end of 2026 with Emphasis placed on the policy of reviewing and approving laws related to energy supply and consumption, formulating and enforcing mandatory national standards for the production and import of all energy-intensive equipment and devices, and strengthening the system for monitoring their proper implementation and requiring manufacturers to reform energy-efficient production processes. The energy footprint in the energy industry, which represents the trajectory of energy consumption and its measurement in the production process from the stage of energy provide to the step of use by the final consumer, was identified. Oil refining industries in the form of legal requirements and related standards were required to implement green productivity techniques based on the installation of appropriate technologies and proper management techniques for oil refining that is environmentally friendly and increasing productivity and profitability. In 2015–2018, 378,000,000 Gj of energy is saved in Iran's oil refineries by carrying out these measures.

Review on gas–liquid–liquid three–phase flow patterns, pressure drop, and liquid holdup in pipelines

Gas–liquid–liquid three–phase co-current flow commonly occurs in the oil & gas production pipelines. The dynamics of three-phase flow are more complex than single and two-phase flow. High pressure drop and liquid holdup are common flow assurance problems in the upstream oil and gas production pipelines. These problems increase the energy consumption of the flow system, especially in the process of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Three-phase flow behavior is highly dependent on the flow patterns. For an economical and energy-efficient production process, the flow pattern with less pressure drop and liquid holdup needs to be identified. In this article, three-phase flow patterns’ classification and structures are critically reviewed and discussed in detail. Flow regime transition with the change in volumetric fractions and superficial velocities of phases are also elaborated. The prediction models for flow regime transition and stability, pressure drop, liquid holdup, and three-phase flow characteristics are presented.

Comparison of two different ultrasound reactors for the treatment of cellulose fibers.

The pulp and paper industry is in continuous need for energy-efficient production processes. In the refining process of mechanical pulp, fibrillation is one of the essential unit operations that count for up to 80% of the total energy use. This initial study explores the potential and development of new type of scalable ultrasound reactor for energy efficient mechanical pulping. The developed reactor is of continuous flow type and based on both hydrodynamic and acoustic cavitation in order to modify the mechanical properties of cellulose fibers. A comparison of the prototype tube reactor is made with a batch reactor type where the ultrasonic horn is inserted in the fluid. The pulp samples were sonicated by high-intensity ultrasound, using tuned sonotrodes enhancing the sound pressure and cavitation intensity by a controlled resonance in the contained fluid. The resonant frequency of the batch reactor is 20.8 kHz and for the tube reactor it is 22.8 kHz. The power conversion efficiency for the beaker setup is 25% and 36% in case of the tube reactor in stationary mode. The objective is to verify the benefit of resonance enhanced cavitation intensity when avoiding the effect of Bjerkenes forces. The setup used enables to keep the fibers in the pressure antinodes of the contained fluid. In case of the continuous flow reactor the effect of hydrodynamic cavitation is also induced. The intensity of the ultrasound in both reactors was found to be high enough to produce cavitation in the fluid suspension to enhance the fiber wall treatment. Results show that the mechanical properties of the fibers were changed by the sonification in all tests. The continuous flow type was approximately 50% more efficient than the beaker. The effect of keeping fibers in the antinode of the resonant mode shape of the irradiation frequency was also significant. The effect on fiber properties for the tested mass fraction was determined by a low-intensity ultrasound pulse-echo based measurement method, and by a standard pulp analyzer.

Ultra-low cost and energy-efficient production of FePCSi amorphous alloys with pretreated molten iron from a blast furnace

Due to the high sensitivity of amorphous forming ability on purity, Fe-based amorphous alloys are always made with high-purity raw materials which are energy wasting for purification and expensive, thereby limiting their wider application. Here, we proposed an ultra-low cost and energy-efficient production process for Fe-based amorphous alloys, with pretreated molten iron from the blast furnace. Fex(P10C9Si1)5–0.05x (x = 76–82) amorphous alloys with excellent manufacturability and magnetic properties were successfully prepared with the new process. The impurities containing C, P, and Si in the molten iron from a blast furnace were used as useful components, while other minor impurities like Ti and Mn do not apparently affect the GFA and magnetic properties. Attractive magnetic properties, including low Hc of 3.1–5.1 A/m, high μe of 6.1–8.4 × 103 at 1 kHz, high Bs of 1.25–1.48 T were achieved in ribbon samples after optimal annealing. Rod samples with a diameter up to 1.5 mm were readily prepared and exhibit high strength of 3.37 GPa. The ultra-low cost, energy saving effects and excellent soft magnetic properties will render the production process a new generation for Fe-based amorphous alloys and widen the applications.

Global Development, Converging Divergence and Development Studies: A Rejoinder

Global Development, Converging Divergence and Development Studies: A Rejoinder

Green transition, industrial policy, and economic development

This paper outlines possibilities for a green industrial policy with particular emphasis on developing countries. The question of green industrial policy is investigated by examining experiences and barriers to phasing-in green technologies, focusing on solar PV and energy efficiency as areas for a green industrial policy. The paper outlines a green transition approach to sustain a shift to cleaner and more energy-efficient production processes through clever policy mixes involving elements of push and pull. Rent management and policy adaptation by competent authorities are also part of the model. The paper offers concrete guidance to the question of what governments in developing countries can usefully and realistically do to phase in green technologies given the priorities for development, imperfect institutions for policy-making and implementation, weakly developed innovation systems, and problems of lock-in.

Systematic literature review of decision support models for energy-efficient production planning

Following the scarcity of resources, rising energy prices, and an increasing awareness of the role manufacturing plays in the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, the consumption of energy has more and more been the subject of research on production planning over the last decade. Even though recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of works published in this area, several related research questions have been opened up without sufficiently linking research approaches and research insights. The aim of this paper is to investigate the links between these questions and to highlight how the modeling approaches developed for different manufacturing systems, energy pricing policies, and energy efficiency criteria can benefit from each other and lead to more advanced energy-efficient production planning approaches. Therefore, this paper provides a review of the state-of-the-art of decision support models that integrate energy aspects into mid-term and short-term production planning of manufacturing companies. The paper first highlights the increasing importance of energy consumption in manufacturing and shows how considering energy consumption in production planning can contribute to more energy-efficient production processes. Subsequently, the paper outlines the review methodology used and descriptively analyzes the sampled papers. Afterwards, the selected papers are categorized according to the production planning tasks considered. From this classification, gaps in the existing literature are derived and potential areas for future research are suggested.

Selective Solar Absorber Coatings on Receiver Tubes for CSP – Energy-efficient Production Process by Sol-gel dip-coating and Subsequent Induction Heating

The energy efficiency of production processes for components of solar energy systems is an important issue. Other factors, which are important for the production of black selective solar coatings include production speed, cycle time and homogeneity of the coating, as well as the minimization of the quantity of the needed chemical precursors. In this paper a new energy-efficient low-cost production process is presented for production of optically selective coatings for solar thermal absorbers.The used method to produce such coatings is sol-gel dip-coating for which all the solutions have been synthetized at the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory of EPFL. The used precursors are tetraethyl orthosilicate, manganese acetate tetrahydrate, copper chloride dihydrate and cobalt chloride hexahydrate. Solutions were obtained by dissolving these precursors in a solution based on a mixture of absolute ethanol, nitric acid and demineralized water.The layers deposited on sheetlike substrates were annealed in a benchtop furnace. For 2 meter long austenitic stainless steel tubes, a novel, fast and energy-efficient process based on induction heating was developed for the thermal annealing. An induction coil passes along the tube. An alternating current flowing in the coil induces a current in the tube. By resistive heating, the temperature of both the metallic tube wall and the deposited film increases. The homogeneity of the temperature distribution of the tube after a single passage of the coil was monitored by infrared imaging.The optical and morphological properties of the Cu-Co-Mn-Si-O based triple layer have been characterized by spectrophotometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). After optimization of the multilayer design, a solar absorptance of 0.95 and a thermal emissivity of 0.12 at 100°C have been achieved. The intermediate Cu-Co-Mn-Si-O layer was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. The likewise obtained images show an agglomeration of crystalline grains with 5-20nm in diameter. Therefore, we can consider that the Cu-Co-Mn-Si-O phase is nanocrystalline.In order to roughly estimate the corrosion resistance of the coating in an acidic environment, a simple corrosion test in harsh conditions confirmed the durability of the novel sol-gel coating. Moreover, the excellent stability at elevated temperatures in ambient air makes the coating an interesting candidate for solar applications involving concentrated solar radiation, such as the generation of solar electricity (concentrated solar power), industrial process heating and solar cooling. For that reason, prototype coatings consisting of stacks of three individual layers were deposited on 2 meter long stainless steel tubes.

Electricity generation from low-temperature industrial excess heat—an opportunity for the steel industry

Awareness of climate change and the threat of rising energy prices have resulted in increased attention being paid to energy issues and industry seeing a cost benefit in using more energy-efficient production processes. One energy-efficient measure is the recovery of industrial excess heat. However, this option has not been fully investigated and some of the technologies for recovery of excess heat are not yet commercially available. This paper proposes three technologies for the generation of electricity from low-temperature industrial excess heat. The technologies are thermoelectric generation, organic Rankine cycle and phase change material engine system. The technologies are evaluated in relation to each other, with regard to temperature range of the heat source, conversion efficiency, capacity and economy. Because the technologies use heat of different temperature ranges, there is potential for concurrent implementation of two or more of these technologies. Even if the conversion efficiency of a technology is low, it could be worthwhile to utilise if there is no other use for the excess heat. The iron and steel industry is energy intensive and its production processes are often conducted at high temperatures. As a consequence, large amounts of excess heat are generated. The potential electricity production from low-temperature excess heat at a steel plant was calculated together with the corresponding reduction in global CO2 emissions.

Study of a new energy efficient process for French fries production

A new, energy efficient production process for French fries was developed and evaluated. Superheated steam (SHS) was used for evaporation of water instead of pre-drying with air and par-frying with oil. The product was frozen by vacuum cooling. Unfortunately, with this process it was not possible to reach the quality of conventional French fries. Sensory analysis indicated that the main quality defect was a tough crust with a fatty appearance. Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy showed that this was caused by skin formation on the surface during both SHS drying and vacuum cooling. A frying step was necessary to obtain a porous crust. A satisfactory product quality was feasible after drying with SHS instead of air. Due to the concessions made for the product quality, the final energy reduction was limited. Nevertheless, this study has gained more insight into how processing affects potato tissue on micro-scale and it has shown that a porous structure is essential for good quality French fries.

The Role of Science in Sustainable Development

The Role of Science in Sustainable Development