Towards eco-friendly sustainable European manufacturing
Production facilities have generally favoured maximal production over efficient energy usage. However, the dramatic increase in the cost of energy and the pressure of regional emission quotas has led such facilities to seek alternative modes of production. The EU-funded FACTORY-ECOMATION (Factory eco-friendly and energy efficient technologies and adaptive automation solutions) project worked to develop new production systems that can be productive, cost effective and energy efficient. Work began by defining a holistic approach to a production environment that takes into consideration both economic and ecological concerns. This contributed to the overall vision of factories that fully incorporate environmental matters into their structure and management, and monitor, manage, predict and prioritise their own environmental effects. Project partners developed a comprehensive sensing, monitoring and data assessment system that provides a clear view of all the materials, energy, waste and emission flows at a factory. They further developed new technologies to boost energy efficiency by reducing its consumption at machinery and production levels, and by recovering its waste. One of the activities involved the installation and testing of a decision support system that assists relevant stakeholders in identifying potential maintenance problems and efficiently managing production scheduling. The FACTORY-ECOMATION team introduced a new adaptive management and automation platform to optimise production by considering productivity, environmental and energy targets. The platform was tested at plant furnaces in Poland, successfully proving the effectiveness of the new methods in improving performance. The team also developed advanced emissions abatement technologies. Through innovative measurement and control technologies and adaptive factory automation solutions, FACTORY-ECOMATION will enable European manufacturing industries to contribute to Europe 2020 targets for climate change and energy sustainability.
Keywords
Near-zero-emissions production systems, FACTORY-ECOMATION, factory, adaptive automation
