A decision tool for improving manufacturing water usage efficiency.pdf (1.82 MB)
A decision tool for improving manufacturing water usage efficiency
journal contribution
posted on 2020-09-08, 12:21 authored by Madhu Sachidananda, Shahin RahimifardShahin Rahimifard, Patrick WebbPatrick WebbThe environmental drivers for improving the efficiency of water usage in manufacturing industry are strong. However, while a water reduction programme can initially produce worthwhile benefits with moderate effort, further significant reductions require change to product, process or operational planning. The investment risk represented by such changes may act as a disincentive for companies to proceed with water conservation efforts. To improve the situation a methodology and a supporting simulation tool for decision making in water reduction investment is introduced in this work. The methodology is based on the concept of water usage efficiency introduced in previous work, which allows identification of hotspots where the maximum gains from intervention can be achieved. The tool further supports a structured approach to ranking the feasibility and benefits of proposed interventions. A report is presented on application of the tool to the operations of a food manufacturing company in India. The area with the greatest potential for improvement was identified as being water directly involved in the process of rice cooking, with the corresponding highest ranked intervention option being pre-soaking the rice. This option delivers the desired efficiency benefits while being lower cost than more technically involved interventions such as introducing water treatment equipment.
Funding
EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...History
School
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Published in
International Journal of Computer Integrated ManufacturingVolume
33Issue
9Pages
823 - 839Publisher
Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Taylor & Francis under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2020-08-23Publication date
2020-09-23Copyright date
2020ISSN
0951-192XeISSN
1362-3052Publisher version
Language
- en
Depositor
Dr Patrick Webb. Deposit date: 7 September 2020Usage metrics
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