PRODUCTION | ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Right: Invest- ing in new equipment gives access to the latest energy
management technologies
start in assessing the overall energy management efficiency of a compound- ing plant is to create a consumption map of all machines and consuming equipment of electrical power, as well as utilities such as compressed air, cooling water and nitrogen. “This can help an understand- ing of which machines or components in a plant require managing and which components can be considered to have no or no significant influence on the energy efficiency of the plant,” he says. “From a technical point of view, the most
important aspect for proper energy management is the measurement of energy consumption for the most significant consumers of electricity and utilities. This data needs to be collected and analysed centrally. For each energy or utilities consumer, individual standard values should be set following a plant evaluation. This can then be supported by machine control systems, for example,” he says. “One significant outcome of a fully integrated and well managed energy monitor- ing and management system can be that a plant can control its consumption in a way so that peaks can be avoided. For example, most energy intensive operations can be moved to times when overall energy consumption is low.”
Monitor energy Depending on what has already been implement- ed in a plant, the first steps will require installation of a monitoring system for all equipment consum- ing energy. “In the short term, machine control systems can be updated to avoid energy consump- tion peaks,” Schmudde says. “Coperion has already installed such systems to improve the energy management of the extruder heating up proce- dure. Longer term actions can include connecting machines from different production steps, such as material handling, extrusion and packaging. By collecting all the data in a centralised platform, the overall energy consumption can be managed and peaks leveled out. Combined with an OEE [overall equipment effectiveness] Tool, such as the one that Coperion demonstrated at the K show, single machines that waste energy can be identified and procedures for optimisation can be developed.” Coperion says it will launch this new OEE Tool
this year. After identifying machines not operating efficiently, the software will offer solutions for improvement. Ultimately, by improving the
24 COMPOUNDING WORLD | February 2020
operation procedures of each machine, overall energy efficiency will increase. From a hardware point of view, Schmudde says it is always beneficial to invest in the latest machin- ery. “Often old machines cannot run processes in the most efficient way due to their lack of power or other features,” he says. “In addition, developing optimised screw configurations for a compounding process can lead to a significant reduction in energy consumption, particularly because the extrusion process is one of, if not the most, energy consuming production step in a compounding plant. Such optimisation can also lead to an increase in output, which is an additional benefit for a plastics producer.” Schmudde says Coperion uses its own test
laboratory to carry out optimisations. He says these have shown that improvements of 10-20% in energy consumption are not out of reach and can often be achieved through relatively minor chang- es in the machine configuration.
Optimise potential “Energy resources and environment topics are increasingly discussed and therefore require that a plant is operated at its optimum level,” he says. “It is always necessary to know the current state of a compounding plant in order to target the potential for reaching optimum performance with the lowest consumption of any utilities, principally energy. As well as energy, loss of material, reduction of off-spec material and highest levels for OEE will also automatically optimise energy consumption. Unused energy, such as heat convection losses, can also be used to reduce the total energy consump- tion of a plant. For example, hot water and steam can be used to heat offices or buildings efficiently.”
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.tangram.co.uk �
www.entek.com �
www.coperion.com
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: COPERION
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