Dr Shoaib Sharfaz Archives

Energy Benchmarking of Manufacturing Processes in Foundation Industries

Energy Benchmarking of Manufacturing Processes in Foundation Industries

As industry increasingly looks at ways to reduce their environmental impacts, manufacturing processes have come under greater scrutiny. The manufacturing sector accounts for 38% of global energy consumption and 25% of global CO2 emissions, much of which comes from process energy and electricity consumption. To reduce these emissions, it is imperative to find ways to reduce the energy consumption in manufacturing either using more energy-efficient equipment and processes or by moving towards to renewable energy. In order to identify areas of inefficiency and which changes will have the greatest impact, benchmarking energy consumption, or determining the “best practices”, in manufacturing processes is a critical step. By comparing energy utilisation data to industry standards or to similar operations, manufacturers can get a greater understanding of their energy consumption and determine the areas to tackle first for the greatest effect. External benchmarking, against other companies within the same sector, and internal [...]

Joanna Johnson2024-01-19T14:28:03+00:00January 15th, 2024|

Potential for energy savings and carbon dioxide emissions reduction in the cement industry

TransFIRe researchers have undertaken a literature review to compare cement production practices, in terms of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, in order to identify approaches that are the least energy and emissions intensive. Cement production accounts for 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions, 3 to 4% of green-house gas emissions, and 7% of global industrial energy use. Demand for cement is also continuously increasing due to the rising worldwide population and urbanisation trends, as well as infrastructure development needs, with a further global increase of 12- 23% from its current level expected by 2050. Following the net-zero carbon 2050 agenda, both energy and emissions must be significantly reduced and, in order to do so, it is essential to understand the manufacturing processes involved and the accompanying energy utilisation and CO2 emissions. The literature review considers both the different types of cement production routes and the different production stages involved, [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-12-11T15:25:15+00:00December 11th, 2023|

Key performance indicators in sustainability reporting: what do we need to measure?

Sustainability reporting is a vital tool to provide information on an organisations’ social, economic, and environmental performance and is an essential way for organisations to demonstrate accountability to their various stakeholders. But how do companies know which metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) they should use? The TransFIRe project through its different Work Streams (WS) is addressing the need of identifying the most suitable metrics for the foundation industries (FI), by looking at different levels for measuring and reporting performance, ranging from the process level to factory level and eventually to the “beyond the fence” level (a system view, looking from the perspective of external stakeholders, including the surrounding community, and the environment). Figure 1 - Schematic representation of the different levels for measuring performance of FIs. Process level metrics At a process level, TransFIRe researchers have created a framework to help the manufacturing industries identify the right [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-06-05T11:02:10+00:00May 16th, 2023|