(125b) Smart Sustainable Manufacturing

Maximizing energy efficiency is receiving increased attention as a way to reduce the use of fossil fuels and the resulting production of greenhouse gases, thus providing an avenue to address possible future legislation of cap and trade or a carbon tax.  Automation, process control, and optimization are critical technologies to operate plants in the most efficient way and to pursue the smart manufacturing paradigm.  The increased use of renewable energy such as solar or wind power reduces carbon usage but adds a dynamic element to power production in process plants, which may involve interfacing with smart grids.  Time of day pricing of power and use of demand response techniques to flatten load profiles will be important ingredients of smart grids.  Increased usage of thermal and other energy storage systems will also give industrial energy users some additional degrees of freedom to deal with the dynamic power conditions.