1,721,090 research outputs found
Measuring industrial sustainability performance: Empirical evidence from Italian and German manufacturing Small & Medium Enterprises
Full text linkThis is the author accepted manuscript. the final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordMeasuring industrial sustainability performance in manufacturing firms is still a major challenge for both policy and industrial decision makers, with many firms, particularly small and medium enterprises, struggling to properly engage with them. Hence, to understand the level of adoption of industrial sustainability indicators and the issues preventing their effective measurement, and stimulate further research in this area, a multiple case analysis of 26 small and medium manufacturing enterprises across Germany and Italy operating in the chemical and metalworking sectors was conducted. The findings show that only 18 indicators are in place on average. Furthermore, too many firms still focus almost exclusively on the economic pillar of sustainability, while social and environmental pillars are addressed almost exclusively for compliance with legislation. Moreover, the research suggests that contextual factors may influence the firms’ perspective on sustainability and the way it is managed, as well as the certifications held by firms, influencing, in turn, the number and types of indicators considered. An exploratory investigation allowed identification of several important open issues, leading to future research avenues, and in particular towards the development of a novel model to gauge sustainability in industrial activities as well as adoption of policy-making measures for further emphasis on environmental and social pillars when promoting the adoption of sustainability indicators
Only non-energy benefits from the adoption of energy efficiency measures? A novel framework
Full text link© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Industrial energy efficiency has been widely recognized as a major contributor to the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions and improvement of industrial competitiveness. Nevertheless, a broad set of studies have pointed out the existence of barriers limiting the adoption of promising Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs). Recently, scholars have shown the relevance of the so-called “non-energy benefits” (NEBs) coming from the adoption of EEMs for overcoming those barriers. Still, the existence of such benefits has been pointed out from specific studies and manuals for practitioners, but an overall framework describing them in terms of savings and benefits, as well as technical and management implications, is missing yet. Moreover, a considerable part of the scholars and of the practitioners just focuses on the identification and definition of the positive benefits deriving from these measures after they have been completely adopted, thus neglecting to describe the full set of both positive and negative effects occurring also during the implementation phase. Thus, starting from a literature review of scientific as well as practitioners’ studies, we have proposed a novel framework and characterization of the relevant items to be considered by an industrial decision-maker when deciding whether to adopt an EEM considering both the implementation and service phases. Hence, by taking this perspective, we have tested and validated the framework and the characterization in a two-step process: firstly, considering a set of EEMs well diffused and adopted in industry; secondly, investigating benefits and losses in ad-hoc selected manufacturing companies. Finally, considerations and implications are drawn from the preliminary validation and suggestion for further research are proposed, for both industrial decision-making as well as policy-making purposes
A review of energy efficiency measures within electric motors systems
Full text link© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of ICAE2018 The 10th International Conference on Applied Energy. Electric motor systems (EMS) play the lion's share in industrial power consumption. Many opportunities for energy efficiency - most of which apparently cost-effective - can be found, but often decision-makers do not take them as the detail for a specific decision can be too high. In many cases, information regarding the characteristics of such energy efficiency measures (EEMs) is quite vague. For this reason, in the present study we offer a thorough overview of EEMs for EMS, basing on an extensive review of scientific and industrial literature, aimed at offering specific detail over single EEMs and thus support to industrial decision-makers. EEMs are presented according to four main groups, as follows: hardware, motor system drives, management of motors in the plant, and power quality. The new categorization could be helpful to support research for the development of a novel framework to represent the main factors the affect the adoption of EMS for EMS
Identification and categorization of factors affecting the adoption of energy efficiency measures within compressed air systems
Full text linkUnderstanding the factors driving the implementation of energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems is crucial to improve industrial energy efficiency, given their low implementation rate. Starting from a thorough review of the literature, it is thus clear the need to support companies in the decision-making process by offering an innovative framework encompassing the most relevant factors to be considered when adopting energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems, inclusive of the impacts on the production resources and the operations of a company. The framework, designed following the perspective of the industrial decision-makers, has been validated, both theoretically and empirically, and preliminarily applied to a heterogeneous cluster of manufacturing industries. Results show that, beside operational, energetic, and economic factors, in particular contextual factors such as complexity, compatibility, and observability may highlight critical features of energy efficiency measures whose absence may change the outcome of a decision-making process. Further, greater awareness and knowledge over the important factors given by the implementation of the framework could play an important role in fostering the implementation of energy efficiency measures in compressed air systems. The paper concludes with further research avenues to further promote energy efficiency and sustainability oriented practices in the industrial sector
Energy efficiency measures in electric motors systems: A novel classification highlighting specific implications in their adoption
No full textElectric motor systems (EMS) cover a remarkable share of industrial power consumption. Despite the wide set of apparently cost-effective opportunities to improve energy efficiency in this cross-cutting technology, often decision-makers do not take them, as the detail for a specific decision can be too high, resulting in an implementation rate quite low. In particular, little knowledge of the features that should be considered when deciding to undertake an action in this area represents a serious hurdle. In many cases, information regarding the characteristics of such energy efficiency measures (EEMs) is quite vague. For this reason, in the present study, we present a thorough overview of EEMs for EMS, basing on an extensive review of scientific and industrial literature. By highlighting their characteristics and productivity benefits, most of which impacting on the adoption decision-making process, we re-categorise EEMs for EMS, offering specific detail over single EEMs and thus support to industrial decision-makers. EEMs are presented according to four main groups, as follows: hardware, motor system drives, management of motors in the plant, and power quality. The novel classification is helpful to support research for the development of a new framework to represent the main factors that affect the adoption of EEMs for EMS. Further, it may help the identification and quantification of productivity benefits for those EEMs. Finally, it could result in a valuable tool offering different perspectives in the decision-making of industrial managers and technology suppliers, as well as industrial policy-makers
Rapporto sullo sviluppo di modelli economico-finanziari per l'analisi di differenti parchi di reattori
Full text linkIl documento presenta il codice, basato sulla piattaforma MathLab, 'INtegrated model for the Competitiveness Ana!ysis of Small-medium sized reactors' (INCAS) che consente all'utilizzatore di simulare scenari di impiego di un parco reattori countiy level dal punto di vista della valutazione delle strategie legate agli investimenti necessari. Il codice è stato realizzato basandosi su modelli sviluppati dal Politecnico di Milano che affrontano in dettaglio gli aspetti economici dei reattori 'modulari' di tipo avanzato
What factors affect the selection of industrial wastewater treatment configuration?
No full textIndustrial wastewater treatment is gaining significance in literature due to stricter environmental policies and increased environmental awareness. The selection of the wastewater configuration encompasses both the treatment as well as several decisions around wastewater collection and disposal pertaining industrial decision-making sphere. However, so far in the wastewater literature, research has mostly discussed either technical features of wastewater technologies, or wastewater policy issues at broader level, without focusing on the industrial decision-making issues and driving factors leading to the selection of a specific configuration. Starting from a literature review, the present study provides an innovative framework of the possible options for wastewater system configuration, as well as major adoption factors by industrial decision-makers. The factors have been classified according to 7 categories, namely: influent-related, technological, economic/financial, internal socio-cultural, external socio-cultural, regulation, site characteristics. The framework, validated with acknowledgeable experts, policy makers and firms, has been preliminarily applied to Italian and Australian food firms. Our investigation reveals that the framework was able to include all relevant problems faced by industries in the selection of a treatment system configuration; besides, the relative importance of factors has been assessed: legal requirements emerge as the most critical factors, followed by volume and discharge fee, the latter particularly interesting for policy makers purposes, since it may guide the decision-making process. Further, the wastewater volume seems to play a key role in our exploratory investigation, with smaller firms preferring a complete off-site treatment to reduce the complexity, whilst larger firms preferring instead more partial or complete on-site treatment configurations for compliance costs reduction. In conclusion, we have provided policy and managerial implications stemming from the study as well as sketched interesting future research avenues
Why Context Matters in Industrial Energy Efficiency: A Framework for Electric Motor Systems
Full text linkEnergy efficiency is one of the most effective means for achieving sustainability goals, yet its adoption, particularly in electric motor systems, remains limited. Insights into the dynamics between contextual elements and efficiency measures can lead to more informed decision-making. This paper presents a framework to explore the role of context in adopting these measures from the perspective of industrial decision-makers, considering both broader business settings and specific applications. The framework is validated through a comprehensive literature review and empirical investigation using semistructured interviews with experts in electric motor systems. The investigation indicates that context impacts both the characterization of an efficiency measure and its effects on company resources and operations. Crucial contextual characteristics, such as company size and process centrality, emerged as key factors in adopting energy efficiency measures in electric motor systems
Label-free quantitative phase imaging of Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) cells
No full textA framework to characterize factors affecting the adoption of energy efficiency measures within electric motors systems
Full text link© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of ICAE2018 The 10th International Conference on Applied Energy. Electric motor systems account for a remarkable share of total industrial power consumption (even more than 70% in some countries). Despite the wide set of effective opportunities to improve energy efficiency in this cross-cutting technology, the implementation rate is still quite low. Among the barriers affecting the adoption of such measures - identified by previous literature -, little knowledge of the factors that should be taken into account when deciding to undertake an action in this area emerges. Therefore, in the present study we present an innovative framework representing factors affecting the adoption of measures for improved efficiency in electric motor systems. Such factors have been classified according to several categories as follows: compatibility, economic, energy benefits, production-related and operations-related non-energy benefits and losses, synergies, complexity, personnel, and additional technical features, so to fully describe the relevant elements to be considered when considering the adoption of energy efficiency measures (EEMs) in electric motor systems (EMS). The framework may represent a valuable instrument to support industrial decision-makers in the adoption of EEMs for EMS
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