Fibers and Fabrics

Tapping waste heat for electrical generation or processes and using waste streams for fuel production or combustion come to mind. Also installing solar power on roofs of factories.

The answer is simple, most spikes in energy costs come from poor production planning, if a factory worked at 95% capacity all of the time and had planned shut downs for maintenance, energy costs would become fairly fixed. At this point you can look at whatever you wish to for reducing the energy cost, my personal favourite is to talk to your energy suppliers, get them to give you the best deal for a constant customer. You could also look at the fact that you may be generating steam for production use, is it cheap, if it is can you use it with an old fashioned beam engine to generate electricity? Recycling waste water is also a favourite, I am unsure what the costs are in the US, but in the UK all process water was cheaper than non process water, thus flushing toilets with used process water saved money. Collecting rain water was free! Heating costs should be kept to a minimum by good design of factories allowing the natural heat from production to heat non production areas. Lighting can be achieved by solar means and the use of low energy lighting is of course paramount. The problem would lie in the fact that this is a squeeze on what you are paying out and will only reduce costs once, you will not be able to make the same percentage savings again, this won't please the bean counters who seem to want the same level of savings year on year.

I don't know about other countries, but in the U.S., businesses can request free energy efficiency (E2) audits and pollution prevention (P2) opportunity assessments. I conduct free, confidential pollution prevention opportunity assessments using continuous improvement practices for Indiana manufacturers. For information regarding the Indiana P2 Opportunity Assessments visit the IDEM website at http://www.in.gov/idem/5298.htm or contact me at the number listed below.

EPA also has a list of all state programs that offer P2 assistance. Many colleges conduct assessments by providing students. The students do an assessment of the facility and provide a report as a class project.

Some companies have even started using interns to identify P2 and E2 opportunities. These interns also manage the project with the company management's oversight. EPA provides interns in Illinos for this and are constantly looking for Illinois businesses to partner with.

Hope this is useful and doesn't sound like a sales ad!

Robert Henry

IDEM, Office of Pollution Prevention and Technical Assistance

317-232-8188