scholarly journals Precise Technology, Inc.: Molded Plastics Manufacturer's Energy Use Drops 22% as a Result of Industrial Energy Assessment Recommendations

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Hossein Omrany ◽  
Veronica Soebarto ◽  
Jian Zuo ◽  
Ruidong Chang

This paper aims to propose a comprehensive framework for a clear description of system boundary conditions in life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) analysis in order to promote the incorporation of embodied energy impacts into building energy-efficiency regulations (BEERs). The proposed framework was developed based on an extensive review of 66 studies representing 243 case studies in over 15 countries. The framework consists of six distinctive dimensions, i.e., temporal, physical, methodological, hypothetical, spatial, and functional. These dimensions encapsulate 15 components collectively. The proposed framework possesses two key characteristics; first, its application facilitates defining the conditions of a system boundary within a transparent context. This consequently leads to increasing reliability of obtained LCEA results for decision-making purposes since any particular conditions (e.g., truncation or assumption) considered in establishing the boundaries of a system under study can be revealed. Second, the use of a framework can also provide a meaningful basis for cross comparing cases within a global context. This characteristic can further result in identifying best practices for the design of buildings with low life cycle energy use performance. Furthermore, this paper applies the proposed framework to analyse the LCEA performance of a case study in Adelaide, Australia. Thereafter, the framework is utilised to cross compare the achieved LCEA results with a case study retrieved from literature in order to demonstrate the framework’s capacity for cross comparison. The results indicate the capability of the framework for maintaining transparency in establishing a system boundary in an LCEA analysis, as well as a standardised basis for cross comparing cases. This study also offers recommendations for policy makers in the building sector to incorporate embodied energy into BEERs.


Author(s):  
Ahmad I. Abbas ◽  
Mandana S. Saravani ◽  
Muhannad R. Al-Haddad ◽  
Ryoichi S. Amano ◽  
Mohammad Darwish Qandil

The Industrial Assessment Center at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (WM-IAC) has implemented over 100 industrial energy, waste, and productivity assessments, and has recommended $9.5 million of energy and operational savings with about 950 recommendations since it was re-established in 2011. This paper analyzes the assessments, and the recommendations were performed over two years only, 2014 and 2015. During these two years, a total of 40 assessments were created by visiting different manufacturing facilities with the analysis of the data gathered and processed. The determinants of the data were the number of recommendations, recommended energy savings (in kWh/year), recommended energy cost savings (in US$/year), implemented energy savings (in US$/year), the Standard Industrial Code (SIC) and the groups of Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEOs). Such an analytical study was meant to reveal the significance of EEO groups through a variety of SICs in terms of the potential for energy savings, particularly focused towards choosing plant facilities for IAC assessments. Additionally, this paper could be considered as a guide for plant managers, energy engineers and other personnel involved in the energy assessment process. Conclusions are inferred with respect to the most promising EEOs that can be resolved based on the characteristics of the manufacturing plants visited. The information investigated can pave the way for composing energy demanding industries and expose priority goal areas regarding minimizing the energy consumption.


Author(s):  
Patrik Thollander ◽  
Magnus Karlsson ◽  
Patrik Rohdin ◽  
Johan Wollin ◽  
Jakob Rosenqvist

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Omrany ◽  
Veronica Soebarto ◽  
Ehsan Sharifi ◽  
Ali Soltani

Residential buildings are responsible for a considerable portion of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Correspondingly, many attempts have been made across the world to minimize energy consumption in this sector via regulations and building codes. The focus of these regulations has mainly been on reducing operational energy use, whereas the impacts of buildings’ embodied energy are frequently excluded. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the energy performance of buildings via a life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) approach. The increasing amount of research has however caused the issue of a variation in results presented by LCEA studies, in which apparently similar case studies exhibited different results. This paper aims to identify the main sources of variation in LCEA studies by critically analyzing 26 studies representing 86 cases in 12 countries. The findings indicate that the current trend of LCEA application in residential buildings suffers from significant inaccuracy accruing from incomplete definitions of the system boundary, in tandem with the lack of consensus on measurements of operational and embodied energies. The findings call for a comprehensive framework through which system boundary definition for calculations of embodied and operational energies can be standardized.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document