A holistic framework for improved energy performance in marine manufacturing plants

Abstract

While the marine industry provides one the most energy-efficient modes of transportation (OECD, 2010), activities of manufacturing plants in this industry, including shipyards and marine equipment manufacturers, are highly energy intensive and environmentally polluting. For instance, a ship is a giant structure consisting of various systems of which construction require very diverse shipyard manufacturing processes such as cutting, bending, blasting, and welding, and so on. Similarly, manufacturing of various machinery and equipment such as marine engines and marine propellers and other onboard equipment and components involve energy-intensive processes such as melting and machining. All the systems and processes are required to be powered using large amounts of energy. Improved energy performance is of great importance for marine manufacturing plants in terms of their business competitiveness because the marine industry represents one of the world`s most open and competitive markets (Stopford, 2009). In such a fiercely competitive market, business factors such as cost-cutting, and good corporate image are imperative to be successful. Also, increased awareness of the effective energy management practices in their production systems will undoubtedly strengthen the ability of marine manufacturers to compete effectively in the open marine market through increased greener corporate image and reduced energy costs. As well as for their benefits, an overall effort from marine manufacturing industries will also contribute to global and national efforts in fighting climate change. Bearing the above motivational reasons, the present study aims to develop a holistic framework for improved energy performance in marine manufacturing plants and to demonstrate the applicability to a typical marine equipment&component manufacturing plant in Turkey. The developed framework consists of the critical energy management themes of Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy Use, and Demand Response Participation, which together form a holistic energy management framework incorporating all critical aspects of improved energy performance in a manufacturing plant. The application of the proposed framework requires performing a detailed energy audit and a techno-economic feasibility analysis for renewables-based microgrid application with demand response. In this research, a real application case study of a Turkish marine component&equipment manufacturing plant is chosen and exemplified to demonstrate the applicability of the developed energy management approach. A detailed energy audit was conducted in the manufacturing plant iii selected to identify energy saving potentials, of which implementation would reduce the energy consumption of the plant and increase energy efficiency. At the same time, a dedicated power measurement campaign on energy consuming systems of the plant was performed to collect appropriate data to use in the microgrid feasibility analysis, which explored the techno-economic potential of integrating renewable energy use and demand response participation. The main findings of the proposed framework in the research has demonstrated that there exists a considerable energy efficiency improvement potential within a marine manufacturing plant through the application of various technical and organisational energy saving potentials that can be identified conducting a detailed energy audit. In addition, it has been found that a noteworthy level of power self-sufficiency can be achieved for the plant by exploiting the onsite renewable energy sources through the application of a microgrid. The contribution of demand response participation, with measures such as such peak shaving and grid arbitrage through energy storage to the economic feasibility of the microgrid investment, is found to be remarkable. This research can be seen as one of the first attempts in the area of energy management in marine manufacturing, which makes the current research novel. A significant contribution has been made in addressing the importance of improved energy performance and energy management issues among marine manufacturing plants such as shipyards and marine component/equipment manufacturers. Creating an increased awareness towards the importance of effective energy management and culture, it is envisaged that this study can be utilized by manufacturing plants of the marine industry to improve their energy performance. The developed methodology was successfully applied to a real case, this success can be translated into another case in similar nature by tailoring the developed methodology to the particular needs of other cases.