Minimize Energy Use Research Articles

Digital innovation for sustainable apparel systems

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate four research and innovation projects, namely, from the perspective of innovation for sustainable development, with a particular focus on digital tools for sales and manufacturing, minimising waste in the textile and apparel value chain and identifying possibilities for further sustainable development in the apparel and textile industry. Design/methodology/approach The foundation of this study is of the four research and innovation projects, which all focus on minimising waste in textile value chains, to support local manufacturing of apparel products and propose product offers that cater to more diverse needs. The main method used is action research. These projects are analysed from the perspective of innovation for sustainable development and the sustainable development goals developed by the United Nations. Findings The findings indicate that the projects have the potential to support further innovation for sustainable business models and support sustainable development in textile and apparel value networks, with a particular focus on minimising material waste and thus minimising energy use. Originality/value The value of the paper is that it shows how methods and technologies for digital sales and manufacturing and for circular value networks can contribute to business models that support sustainable development in the textile and apparel industry.

Passive Design for Thermal Comfort in Hot Humid Climates

Passive design can be referred to a way of designing buildings that takes advantage of the prevailingclimate and natural energy resources, such as daylight, wind and thermal buoyancy, to achieve a comfortableenvironment while minimising energy use and reliance on mechanical systems. This paper reviews a selectionof work on key issues which are inherent to passive design for thermal comfort in hot humid climates,namely the comfort zone, the minimisation of cooling needs and techniques for cooling and dehumidification.Directions for future research are also discussed. The review highlights the need for acquiring genericdesign and control principles, which will help maximise the potential of various passive design techniquesfor providing thermal comfort in hot humid climates, and which will also complement the knowledge alreadygained from case studies and fieldwork carried out in the areas. Furthermore, continuous research anddevelopment, both technical and commercial, are required to develop high-potential passive climate controltechniques to become viable alternatives to mechanical solutions.

Model for management of an on-demand irrigation network based on irrigation scheduling of crops to minimize energy use (Part I): Model Development

A tool implemented in MATLAB®, called GREDRIP, has been developed to simulate the behavior of an on-demand irrigation network, taking into account crop distributions in an irrigable area. It was applied during two complete irrigation seasons (2015 and 2016) for weekly irrigation scheduling. This tool portends to be useful as a decision support system tool to manage on-demand collective irrigable areas with minimum energy costs at the pumping station and by performing an irrigation schedule to guarantee crop water requirements. Hence, it is possible to go from an on-demand irrigation management system to a restricted arranged operation, carried out with centralized management, where the manager of the irrigation network satisfies the demand of farmers within a short period of time. The main novelty of this paper is to show a simulation tool which integrate the energy efficiency of the pumping station taking into account irrigation events distribution according to the crop irrigation scheduling at each plot. In this regard, this tool respects the irrigation scheduling of farmers, and it controls the starting time for each hydrant to minimize the energy cost. It was applied considering two types of pressure regulations, i.e., fixed and variable pressure heads. The distribution of open hydrants and the starting times of the irrigation events at each case performed by this tool led to optimization of the flow discharge distribution in the irrigation network, guaranteeing adequate flow discharge and pressure to all hydrants, which affected the uniformity of irrigation in the plot. Although the regulation using fixed pressure management represented energy costs 10% higher than the regulation using the variable pressure head, this difference would not compensate for the implementation of variable pressure management given the complexity of managing a variable pressure head in a pumping station. The actual irrigation network management, which does not consider the energy efficiency at the pumping station, showed higher energy consumed and energy costs at the pumping system in comparison with the results using GREDRIP. This fact suggest that it is necessary to improve the technical advisory system for irrigation scheduling at the plot scale and irrigation network management.

Evaluating the potential of simulation assisted energy management systems: A case for electrical heating optimisation

Buildings consume a significant amount of energy worldwide in maintaining comfort for occupants. Building energy management systems (BEMS) are employed to ensure that the energy consumed is used efficiently. However these systems often do not adequately perform in minimising energy use. This is due to a number of reasons, including poor configuration or a lack of information such as being able to anticipate changes in weather conditions. We are now at the stage that building behaviour can be simulated, whereby computer programs can be used to predict building conditions, and therefore enable buildings to use energy more efficiently, when integrated with BEMS (i.e. simulation assisted control [1]). In this paper we demonstrate a low cost BEMS that uses building simulation to predict optimised electrical heating startup control points. Those that use electricity for heating in Scotland, where this study was based, tend to be fuel-poor, hence there is a strong case for optimisation, particularly when electricity costs nearly three times as much as the equivalent unit of gas for heating applications. The proposed system demonstrated a 50% energy saving in the reduced heating time compared to scheduling when retrospectively evaluated.

A Stepwise Approach to Laparoscopic Enucleation and Excision of Retroperitoneal Cysts

To show a step-by-step approach to laparoscopic enucleation and excision of retroperitoneal cysts using a technical video. A technical video (Canadian Task Force classification III). A benign gynecology department at a university hospital. Laparoscopic enucleation and excision of retroperitoneal cysts. Retroperitoneal cysts are rare lesions associated with numerous complications including compression on neighboring organs, infection, rupture, and malignant transformation. Excision of retroperitoneal cysts can be challenging, and dissection of the retroperitoneal space is associated with bowel and vascular injury [1]. Laparoscopic drainage and fenestration have been promoted to prevent visceral injury [2]. Such approaches are ineffective, with increased recurrences and fluid accumulation requiring repeat surgical procedures [3,4]. Successful laparoscopic excision of retroperitoneal cysts has been reported although there are no published videos of the technique [5]. In this video, we use 2 separate cases to show our step-by-step laparoscopic approach to enucleate and excise retroperitoneal cysts. Various methods to safely enter retroperitoneal spaces to avoid inadvertent damage to surrounding structures are detailed. A combination of careful blunt and sharp dissection is used to find specific planes to separate the cyst from the overlying peritoneum and underlying pelvic sidewall structures such as the ureter, vasculature, and nerves. We minimize energy use, and, when it is used, we are mindful regarding active blade positioning of the ultrasonic dissector to prevent inadvertent cyst rupture and injury to the surrounding structures. Keeping the cysts intact aids in leverage and prevents inadvertent spillage of potentially malignant contents. The cysts are retrieved laparoscopically by contained bag decompression.

Investigating Warm and Humid Climate with the Approach of Production of Quantitative and Qualitative Architectural Models

Climate change is one of the most significant threats facing the world today. Buildings are one of the largest energy consuming sectors in the world. Most contemporary buildings are highly dependent on air conditioning systems and electricity, reliant on fossil fuels and increasingly unable to adapt to a warming climate. Iran's hot and cold climatic regions are vast. With the advancement of technology, life in every weather condition is possible. Humans can provide living conditions. Passive design responds to local climate and site conditions in order to maximize the comfort and health of building users while minimizing energy use. The key to designing a passive building is to take best advantage of the local climate. Passive cooling refers to any technologies or design features adopted to reduce the temperature of buildings without the need for power consumption. Today been proven that seasonal fossil contamination causes irreparable damage to our planet's ecosystem, which is the result of global warming. According to studies conducted so far, the use of clean fuel cannot alone meet our needs in severe weather conditions. Eco-friendly architecture helps to save energy by avoiding energy losses. In this paper, with the careful analysis of weather information in Dezful, computer software solutions provide architectural solutions that can be measured and can be applied to each of the suggested patterns as Checked a number. Gaven Comfort conditions in this city without any static and dynamic system is 17.7% of the year, which can be increased by 78.8% of the year using static systems.

A Boost for Butte

The first gravity-powered municipal treatment facility featuring ceramic membranes in the United States, the Basin Creek Water Treatment Plant in Butte, Montana, uses innovative approaches to minimize energy use, chemical costs, and water loss. The unique treatment system offers lessons for increasing operational efficiency, dependability, and sustainability.

Green‐oriented user‐satisfaction aware WiFi offloading in HetNets

To cope with the tremendous growth of data traffic and obtain a given communication service with minimal energy use, traffic offloading and energy efficiency (EE) improving are two important issues to address for green cellular networks. The authors investigate downlink WiFi offloading in a heterogeneous network consisting of one long term evolution eNodeB (eNB) and multiple overlaid WiFi access points to maximise the user satisfaction of the whole system. In addition, a designed resource reallocation scheme after offloading is jointly considered to improve the EE of the eNB. In the offloading model, two constraints are considered to guarantee the rate promotion of the offloaded users and less impact on WiFi networks. Moreover, the authors transform the model into a combinatorial optimisation problem and adopt the best response (BR) algorithm based on game-theoretic approach to obtain the optimal offloading user set. Numerical results show that the proposed WiFi-offloading model can significantly improve the aggregate user satisfaction as well as EE of the eNB. Also, the BR algorithm can converge to the optimal solution same as the exhaustive search algorithm through several iterations.

Lighting controls: Evolution and revolution

The basic function of a lighting system is to provide a defined amount of light to a space according to context-appropriate design criteria while minimising energy use. Lighting control strategies based on occupancy and daylight adaptation have been consistently shown to substantially lower lighting energy use compared to fixed systems, and are now ubiquitous in building energy codes. The adoption of light emitting diodes and the integration of information and communication technologies enable lighting control systems to become smarter with a greater integration of sensing, data processing and connectivity, and to evolve into a platform for both lighting and non-lighting applications. We describe different lighting control strategies and their evolution with a focus on commercial office applications. To illustrate emerging approaches, we then discuss two particular smart lighting systems – a wireless, distributed lighting control system and a power-over-Ethernet, centralised lighting control system, with cloud connectivity. The role that a connected lighting system can play in the overall building eco-system is then discussed, and new applications and services that are enabled are presented. Finally, we discuss the challenges to the market adoption of connected smart lighting systems, and the arising opportunities for researchers and practitioners to realise one more round of high-value returns offered by lighting systems.

Modeling, optimization and control of an austenitization furnace for achieving target product toughness and minimizing energy use

Quench hardening is the process of heating finished or pre-finished steel parts to a specific temperature in order to reach a phase transformation of steel to austenite (austenitization) followed by quenching in oil, water or brine to induce desired metallurgical properties. During this process, both macroscopic quantities such as temperature and heat duty and microscopic variables, such as austenite grain size, determine the quality of the quenched product. In this paper, we propose a novel model-based approach for optimizing the energy input to an austenitization furnace system by capturing the essential physics at both the aforementioned length scales. The model predicts the energy consumption of the system, the part temperature distribution and the austenite grain size distribution as a function of the processing time and processing conditions. An optimization scheme is proposed to minimize the furnace energy consumption without compromising the part heating requirements and product quality.

(Invited) Interface Engineering for Nanoelectronics

The pace of innovation within the electronics industry is picking up steam in response to critical challenges as conventional silicon technology matures. Increasingly, semiconductor-based systems, from small sensors to high performance computers, or everything in between, must maximize performance, while minimizing energy use and providing security and assurance. As recently highlighted in “Semiconductor Research Opportunities” by the SIA/SRC, for the semiconductor industry to continue achieving performance improvements, the broader research community needs a comprehensive approach that considers all aspects of semiconductor technology, including novel materials, new manufacturing techniques, new structures, system architectures and applications. Among these approaches is the fundamental understanding of electronic processes at interfaces since the interface increasingly dominates electronic performance. I will describe advances made in our ability to manipulate and measure organic and molecular interfaces at the nanometer scale and the impact on the resulting electronic performance. This talk will contain three primary themes, 1-designer interfaces, 2-electronic junction formation, and 3-advancing metrology for nanoelectronics. The foremost step of interface engineering is the ability to create designer surfaces where monolayers can be tailored for specific electronic properties. This can be achieved by controlling the tunnel barrier thickness on a ferromagnetic electrode or by using click chemistry to create dense, high-quality electrically active molecular layers. Understanding the electrical response on the nanoscale is non-trivial as often creating the test structure creates artifacts that dominate the electronic response. In particular, I will focus on the measurement advances made in molecular electronics, highlighting our understanding of the interface science and characterization.

Energy-Efficient Mobile Video Streaming

Video streaming is one of the most widely used mobile applications today, and it also accounts for a large fraction of mobile battery usage. Much of the energy consumption is for wireless data transmission and is highly correlated to network bandwidth conditions. In periods of poor connectivity, up to 90% of mobile energy can be used for wireless data transfer. In this article, we study the problem of energy-efficient mobile video streaming. We make use of the observed correlation between bandwidth and user location , and also observe that a user’s location is predictable in many situations, such as when commuting to a known destination. Based on the user’s predicted locations and bandwidth conditions, we optimize wireless transmission times to achieve high quality video playback while minimizing energy use. We propose an optimal offline algorithm for this problem, which runs in O ( Tk ) time, where T is the duration of the video and k is the size of the video buffer. We also propose LAWS, a Location AWare Streaming algorithm. LAWS learns from historical location-aware bandwidth conditions and predicts future bandwidths along a planned route to make online wireless download decisions. We evaluate LAWS using real bandwidth traces, and show that LAWS closely approximates the performance of the optimal offline algorithm, achieving 90.6% of the optimal performance on average, and 97% in certain cases. LAWS also outperforms three popular strategies used in practice by, on average, 69%, 63%, and 38%, respectively. Lastly, we show that LAWS is able to deal with noisy data and can attain the stated performance after sampling bandwidth conditions only five times.

Energy efficiency of milling machining: Component modeling and online optimization of cutting parameters

Energy consumption is a major sustainability focus in the metal cutting industry. As a result, process planning is increasingly concerned with reducing energy consumption in machine tools. The relevant literature has been categorized into two research areas. The first includes energy prediction models, which characterize the relationships between cutting parameters – the main outputs of process planning - and energy consumption. The second involves energy-consumption optimization, which uses the prediction models to find the cutting parameters that minimize energy use. However, previous energy prediction models are limited to predict energy for tool paths coded in a Numerical Control (NC) program. Previous energy optimization methods typically do not use online optimization, which enables fast optimization decision-making for supporting on-demand process planning and real-time machine control. This paper presents a component-based energy-modeling methodology to implement the online optimization needed for real-time control. Models that can predict energy up to the tool path-level at specific machining configurations are called component-models in this paper. These component-models are created using historical data that includes process plans, NC programs, and machine-monitoring data. The online optimization is implemented using a dynamic composition of component-models together with a divide-and-conquer technique. The feasibility and effectiveness of our methodology has been demonstrated in a milling-machine example.

Characteristics of Revolving Door Use as a Countermeasure to the Stack Effect in Buildings

Efficient control of ventilation and cooling/heating systems in buildings is integral to making adjustments to indoor environments and to minimizing energy use. In high-rise buildings, however, the stack effect is generated through vertical shafts in the buildings, and the air flow due to the stack effect greatly affects the efficiency of air-conditioning systems used for ventilation, cooling, and heating. Therefore, attenuating the stack effect in high-rise buildings is a critical aspect of HVAC operations as well as a solution for direct problems related to the stack effect, such as high-velocity draft, high-level noise in the buildings, and so on.In general, as a method to attenuate the stack effect in high-rise buildings, revolving doors are installed at the lobby entrance. However, while this method may be effective on the floors where revolving doors are applied, the efficiency is very low when considering the entire building due to the existence of many air flow paths and the fact that revolving doors applied to only part of a building can control only a portion of the air flow. Numerical simulation analysis was performed in this study to quantitatively examine the stack effect attenuation characteristics of revolving doors on both a partial building level and for the entire building. In addition, the effects of building height and airtightness on the performance of the building envelope were considered.

Could smart growth lower the operational energy of water supply? A scenario analysis in Tampa, Florida, USA

Cities are coming under increasing pressure to minimize energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, drinking water utilities must improve the efficiency of their management systems while guaranteeing a clean effluent that satisfies drinking water standards. One possible solution is via smart growth, an urban development paradigm with the goal of reducing the environmental impact of urbanization. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of smart growth on the operational energy of drinking water distribution. Projected water use in Tampa’s drinking water service area was estimated based on several urban growth projections. Then, each scenario’s associated projected water consumption is integrated in an EPANET simulation of Tampa’s water distribution system for the subsequent estimation of the operational energies of drinking water distribution. Results show that smart growth has no exclusive influence on the operational energy of water supply. However, location of added demand relative to the location of the water treatment plant has more of an influence on the operational energy. Also, smart growth in the City of Tampa Water Service Area is responsible for a decrease in per-capita residential water and energy use of about 6–10% and 0.5–6.2% respectively. In conclusion, smart growth in areas near the water treatment facility may minimize water-related energy use.

Optimization of thermal and daylight performance of school buildings based on a multi-objective genetic algorithm in the cold climate of China

A high demand for heating energy in winter, overheating in summer and visual discomfort are important issues in school buildings in the cold climate of China. This study presents the use of simulation–optimization tools to find the optimal trade-off between minimizing energy use for heating and lighting, reducing summer discomfort time and maximizing the Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDIavg, between 100 and 2000lx). Different spatial configurations were investigated, including a single-sided open corridor type, a single-sided enclosed corridor type and a double-sided corridor type school. The following passive design parameters were considered in the optimization analysis: orientation, room depth and corridor depth, window-to-wall ratio of different interfaces, glazing materials and shading types.The results of the optimization study show that the energy demand for heating and lighting can be reduced by 24–28% and summer thermal discomfort by 9–23% while the UDIavg (100–2000lx) can simultaneously increase by 15–63%. Considering all three aspects, the double-sided enclosed corridor type performs best due to its energy performance while the one-sided enclosed corridor type is the least suitable for the cold climate because of its relatively poor visual comfort quality. In addition, the passive design parameters should be carefully considered as each spatial configuration has its own optimal passive design parameters.

A system of systems view on integrating control for energy efficient building assessment

The ability to simulate combined control and building performance applications in a distributed manner is increasingly becoming an invaluable tool in the assessment of automated buildings (ABs) for better design and operation. To make such assessments without the need for costly and time consuming experiments, distributed simulations can be used so as to simultaneously fulfil the occupants' needs while minimising energy use and potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, distributed simulations are necessary to assess the impact of control systems on building performance applications (i.e., building indoor environments) over a network. This paper describes the development and implementation of a unified framework based on a system of systems (SoS) concept for distributed control and building performance simulations involving two or more different software tools via a network. The main objective of this framework is to couple one or multiple building performance simulation tool(s) with a control systems modelling environment by run-time over a network in order to similarly represent building automation and control systems (BACS) architecture in a simulation. Finally, the paper ends with some conclusions and perspectives for future work.

A system of systems view on integrating control for energy efficient building assessment

The ability to simulate combined control and building performance applications in a distributed manner is increasingly becoming an invaluable tool in the assessment of automated buildings (ABs) for better design and operation. To make such assessments without the need for costly and time consuming experiments, distributed simulations can be used so as to simultaneously fulfil the occupants' needs while minimising energy use and potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, distributed simulations are necessary to assess the impact of control systems on building performance applications (i.e., building indoor environments) over a network. This paper describes the development and implementation of a unified framework based on a system of systems (SoS) concept for distributed control and building performance simulations involving two or more different software tools via a network. The main objective of this framework is to couple one or multiple building performance simulation tool(s) with a control systems modelling environment by run-time over a network in order to similarly represent building automation and control systems (BACS) architecture in a simulation. Finally, the paper ends with some conclusions and perspectives for future work.

Energy and Congestion-Aware Routing Metric for Smart Grid AMI Networks in Smart City

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is becoming a vital part of utility distribution networks, allowing the development of smart cities. AMI consists of smart electric, gas, and water meters, and the devices are very limited in terms of battery, processing power, and memory. The deployment and operational needs of energy-constrained network infrastructures in smart water and gas metering systems require the use of routing mechanisms that consider energy consumption, minimize energy use, and prolong network lifetime. An efficient routing metric is needed for energy-constrained devices. In this paper, we propose an energy- and congestion-aware routing metric for smart meter networks to be deployed in smart cities. The proposed metric is an adaptive parent node selection mechanism that considers the residual energy and queue utilization of neighboring nodes. Minimizing power consumption will enhance network lifetime. The proposed scheme was evaluated with the Cooja Simulator 3.0 using random and grid topology. The simulation results show greater network performance in terms of average power consumption and packet delivery ratio.

Real-Time Velocity Optimization to Minimize Energy Use in Passenger Vehicles

Energy use in internal combustion engine passenger vehicles contributes directly to CO 2 emissions and fuel consumption, as well as producing a number of air pollutants. Optimizing the vehicle velocity by utilising upcoming road information is an opportunity to minimize vehicle energy use without requiring mechanical design changes. Dynamic programming is capable of such an optimization task and is shown in simulation to produce fuel savings, on average 12%, compared to real driving data; however, in this paper it is also applied in real time on a Raspberry Pi, a low cost miniature computer, in situ in a vehicle. A test drive was undertaken with driver feedback being provided by a dynamic programming algorithm, and the results are compared to a simulated intelligent cruise control system that can follow the algorithm results precisely. An 8% reduction in fuel with no loss in time is reported compared to the test driver.