Energy Efficient Manufacturing

Chapter 1Introduction to Energy Efficient Manufacturing

Barbara S. Linke¹* and John W. Sutherland²*

¹Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering University of California, Davis, USA

²Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

^*Corresponding authors: [e-mail]; [e-mail]

Abstract

Over the last decade, manufacturers around the world have expressed increasing interest in reducing their energy consumption. It appears that there are at least two principal motivations for this interest: i) the emergence of policies and legislation related to carbon emissions due to energy generation, and ii) the rising cost of energy relative to other production costs. Thus, manufacturers have begun to search for opportunities to reduce their energy usage.

A recent study by Johnson Controls shows that the demand for facility projects that promote and introduce renewable energy have dramatically increased over the last ten years [1]. Cost reduction remains the primary driver, but energy security, customer and employee attraction, greenhouse gas reduction, enhanced reputation, government policy, and investor expectations are increasingly important for investment in renewable energy [1].

In this book, the authors explore a variety of opportunities to reduce the energy footprint of manufacturing; these opportunities cover the entire spatial scale of the manufacturing enterprise: from unit process-oriented approaches to enterprise-level ...