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Significant increases in industry energy efficiency are crucial for the transformation of the world's energy systems. Many production sites offer high energy savings capabilities, and if these are accompanied by short periods of economic amortization, companies should be willing to act. This case study provides a novel and extended energy assessment for plastics processing plants including primary energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy costs. The research distinguishes between the standard form of separate individual energy assessments and provides a more innovative holistic approach taking all relevant energy flows within the production system into account. Dynamic simulation offers a quick and effective way to predict the results of the possible energy saving measures highlighted in this analysis. The paper presents validated energy consumption simulations based on realistic processing conditions for two injection molding factories in different climatic zones. The results show that combining a number of separate energy saving measures can reduce the primary energy demand by around 26% for a German plant under temperate climate conditions and 20% for a Western Australian plant under Mediterranean conditions. However, when the separate energy saving measures are holistically combined the reduction in energy use significantly increases to 41% and 43% respectively. This holistic energy strategy involves incorporating better cogeneration and waste heat recovery options. For small and medium sized companies in particular major energy infrastructure investments may often be considered too expensive without examining the extended benefits from a holistic energy assessment perspective. In contrast, a holistic framework, like the one suggested in this paper could provide a number of new options for increasing energy efficiency that individually might normally not be accepted under conventional economic rate of return analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing energy demand in manufacture is an urgent challenge. This challenge is driven by higher consumer demand for manufactured products, increasing electricity and energy prices, volatility and uncertainty in energy supply and national policy. These factors, together with a need to reduce energy consumption derived carbon dioxide emissions, strategically call for energy efficient manufacturing. In manufacturing processes, especially mechanical machining, more than 90% of environmental impact arises from direct electrical energy demand in machine tools. At the machine tool level, the biggest share of the electrical energy associated with mechanical machining is required to bring the machine to a ready state and support non-cutting operations such as spindle torque requirements, auxiliary units and movements. These activities are controlled and related to machine commands such as NC codes. In this paper comprehensive information on energy intensity in machining process, including the influence of tool wear, was studied. Key energy states were identified to build up an energy demand for machining components. The paper defines the essential power constants for a database that can assist energy prediction for any available machines and workpiece materials. The assessment of alternative toolpaths identified major opportunities for energy demand reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]