Design and operation considerations for energy conservation in process industries

In the changing face of the business environment, industries often walk the extra mile to keep the production costs to a bare minimum. Process industries such as petrochemical, pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries have shown that by doing minor alterations in the design stage and the operation of the process industries, a big impact can be achieved in the bottom line of the company's performance. This paper attempts to consolidate die various energy saving techniques that can be used both in a) design of new process industries: layout of plant, load centers like the chillers, cooling towers and boilers, piping arrangements, motor sizing and the importance of the parallel operation of loads and variable speed drives. B) method of operation: selecting the optimum running combination of loads, determining the number of pumps required to meet a certain demand in the industry. Finally the paper spells out a procedure for "daily tracking of the energy costs" in industry by means of a simple Excel spread sheet that can be used by the managers to keep track of the utility costs thus effectively controlling the company's profitability.