A concept of water usage efficiency to support water reduction in manufacturing industry

Increasing pressures on freshwater supplies, continuity of supply uncertainties, and costs linked to legislative compliance, such as for wastewater treatment, are driving water use reduction up the agenda of manufacturing businesses. A survey is presented of current analysis methods and tools generally available to industry to analyze environmental impact of, and to manage, water use. These include life cycle analysis, water footprinting, strategic planning, water auditing, and process integration. It is identified that the methods surveyed do not provide insight into the operational requirements from individual process steps for water, instead taking such requirements as a given. We argue that such understanding is required for a proactive approach to long-term water usage reduction, in which sustainability is taken into account at the design stage for both process and product. As a first step to achieving this, we propose a concept of water usage efficiency which can be used to evaluate current and proposed processes and products. Three measures of efficiency are defined, supported by a framework of a detailed categorization and representation of water flows within a production system. The calculation of the efficiency measures is illustrated using the example of a tomato sauce production line. Finally, the elements required to create a useable tool based on the efficiency measures are discussed

A web-based information system to support end-of-life product recovery

Increased public awareness towards global environmental problems has forced manufacturing companies to consider the negative impacts of their activities on the environment. In this context, the effective management of products at the end of their useful life has become of paramount importance due to the ever-increasing national and international legislation and directives aimed at making take-back and recovery of used products obligatory for the original equipment manufacturer. This highlights a need for a systematic approach for enhancement of information, business and production management systems to deal with additional activities and processes related to the recovery of products. The research reported in this paper has developed a five-stage methodology to support product end-of-life management within manufacturing companies. The modelling and design of appropriate product recovery information systems, which constitute the main core of this methodology, are also described. The paper concludes with the description of an application of this methodology and information system design for the recovery of cutting tools at the end of their useful life in metalworking applications

Study of the antibacterial activity of total extract and Petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions of aerial parts of heliotropium bacciferum against staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E.coli, Salmonella enteritidis

Heliotropium bacciferum is One of the plants belonging to the family Boraginaceae , which is Restricted distribution in the south of Iran. It is used for Hypotension, fever, stomach ulcers in traditional medicine. In this study, the antibacterial effects of extracts and fractions of chloroform, ethyl acetate and aqueous, aerial parts of Heliotropium bacciferum Forssk was evaluated against five bacterial strains. The methanol extract were prepared using the percolation method. Fractions of chloroform, Petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous respectively by Liquid - Liquid fractionation of the total extract were prepared. The antibacterial activity against two Gram positive bacteria, three Gram negative bacterial using Minimum inhibitory concentration in microplate and well plate method. Results showed that H. bacciferum extracts exhibited a significant activity against strains Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus,Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E.coli, Salmonella enteritidis. MIC and well plate is between 7.6-125 μg/ml. The results of this study indicate that extracts of the plant H.bacciferum has a antimicrobial effect against strains are listed And among the extracts, aqueous part is that most antibacterial effect of the other fraction and then methanolic extract has the greatest effect

Visual Material Characteristics Learning for Circular Healthcare

The linear take-make-dispose paradigm at the foundations of our traditional economy is proving to be unsustainable due to waste pollution and material supply uncertainties. Hence, increasing the circularity of material flows is necessary. In this paper, we make a step towards circular healthcare by developing several vision systems targeting three main circular economy tasks: resources mapping and quantification, waste sorting, and disassembly. The performance of our systems demonstrates that representation-learning vision can improve the recovery chain, where autonomous systems are key enablers due to the contamination risks. We also published two fully-annotated datasets for image segmentation and for key-point tracking in disassembly operations of inhalers and glucose meters. The datasets and source code are publicly available.Comment: To be submitte

Post-consumer waste management issues in the footwear industry

Currently, 17 billion pairs of shoes are produced worldwide every year, and this figure continues to rise. This creates an enormous amount of post-consumer (end-of-life) shoe waste that is currently being disposed of in landfill sites around the world. The research reported in this paper is an initial investigation into realization of a holistic approach to application of recovery and recycling in the footwear industry. The paper provides a brief review of the trends in the footwear sector regarding the amount of end-of-life waste produced, together with existing reuse and recycling activities. It also presents an integrated waste management framework by combining a mix of design and material improvements, as well as reuse, recycling, and energy recovery activities, and concludes by examining the challenges in establishing end-of-life product recovery procedures for post-consumer shoes

The digitisation of food manufacturing to reduce waste – Case study of a ready meal factory

Generation of food waste (FW) continues to be a global challenge and high on the political agenda. One of the main reasons for its generation is the absence of detailed data on the amount, timing and reasons for created waste. This paper discusses the design, the application and investigates the Internet of Things (IoT) based FW monitoring system to capture waste data during manufacturing in real-time and make it available to all the stakeholders in a food supply chain (FSC). A case study of ready-meal factory comprises of design and architecture for tracking FW including both hardware and software, its implementation in the factory and the positive data-driven results achieved. The case study demonstrates the benefits of digital FW tracking system including the FW reduction of 60.7%, better real-time visibility of the FW hotspots, reasons for waste generations, reliable data, operational improvements and employee behavioural transformation. Although the system replaced the paper-based manual system of tracking FW in the factory, it still needed human input to confirm the waste and was prone to human errors. Overall, the implementation of an IoT-based FW tracking system resulted in a reduction of FW and created a positive environmental and financial impact

Real-time data collection to improve energy efficiency in food manufacturing

The demand for energy is on the rise which is caused by a combination of global economic progress and population growth. The food sector is a significant consumer of energy at each stage of the supply chain, i.e. from farm to fork. Hence, improving efficiency and recognizing potentials for energy conservation has become essential in order to address the challenges faced by the food sector. However, most food manufacturing businesses, especially small and medium scale enterprise, have limited awareness of significant potentials offered through the recent technological advancements in real-time energy monitoring. In this context, the concept of ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) has investigated to increase the visibility, transparency and awareness of various resource usage, thanks to the availability of inexpensive and smart sensing devices. This paper presents a case study of a beverage factory where the implementation of IoT-powered sensors and smart meters is based on the embodied product energy (EPE) modelling. This arrangement enabled the collection of real-time data on energy consumption within a food production system to support more informed engineering and operational decisions, leading to an improved energy monitoring and management, as well as substantial cost savings

A methodology for the selection of industrial robots in food handling

As the global population continues to rise and consumer demand for a wider variety of food products increases, food manufacturers are exploring various strategies, methods and tools to change and adapt. Furthermore, restriction in access to low-cost labour and introduction of more stringent legislation are forcing the food industry to update their production processes. Industrial robots, a pillar of Industry 4.0, promises many benefits to the food manufacturing industry, especially in responding to these new challenges. The integration of such automation into food manufacturing has been a slow process in comparison to other manufacturing sectors and has largely been limited to packaging and palletising. This research aims to improve the application of industrial robots within food manufacturing through definition of a methodology for the identification of a flexible automation solution for a specific production requirement. The paper explores the four steps within the Food Industrial Robot Methodology (FIRM), through which users define, classify and identify their foodstuff and automation solution. The application of FIRM is exemplified through an industrial case study to support food manufacturers investigating the potential benefits of utilising industrial robots within their production systems

Utilisation of Internet of Things to improve resource efficiency of food supply chains

The food sector is increasingly facing significant challenges throughout the supply chain to become more resource efficient. In this context, three critical areas of focus are the reduction of food waste, energy, and water consumption. One of the key factors identified as an obstacle to improving resource efficiency is the lack of suitable capabilities to collect, exchange and share real-time data among various stakeholders. Having such capabilities would provide improved awareness and visibility of resource use and help make better decisions that drive overall productivity of the supply chain. The principle concept of the ‘Internet of Things' (IoT) has been used in several applications to improve overall monitoring, planning, and management of supply chain activities. This paper explores the feasibility of adopting such IoT concepts to improve the resource efficiency of food supply chains. An IoTbased framework is proposed to support the incorporation of relevant data into supply chain decision-making models for the reduction of food waste, energy and water consumption

Impact of the use of renewable materials on ecoefficiency of manufacturing processes

The use of renewable materials has attracted interest from a wide range of manufacturing industries looking to reduce their environmental and carbon footprints. As such, the development and use of biopolymers has been largely driven by their perceived environmental benefits over conventional polymers. However, often these environmental claims, when challenged, are lacking in substance. One reason for this is the lack of quality data for all life cycle stages. This applies to the manufacturing stages of packaging, otherwise known as ‘packaging conversion’, where for certain product/production types, a reduction in energy consumption of 25–30% from lower processing temperatures can be offset by an increase in pressure, cycle times and reject rates. The ambiguity of the overall environmental benefit achieved during this stage of the life cycle, when this is the main driver for their use, highlights the need for a clearer understanding of impact that such materials have on the manufacturing processes