Assessing Energy Efficiency In The Automotive Industry: Research Proposal

Project Title

Concern about the consumption of energy has increased in the industry of manufacturing because of the rise in the cost of energy and ecological adverse impacts of production. Energy efficiency is the main driver in the currents industry of manufacturing as it enables manufacturers to produce environmental and economic performance. The quantity of energy used in the systems of manufacturing accounts for a significant proportion of the emission of carbon which impacts climate change. Processes of machines and tools consume more quantities of electrical energy and therefore the solution is to improve the machines’ and equipment’s efficiency so that the emission of carbon is reduced. The objective of this proposed research is to assess the energy efficiency in the automobile industries. The study will help in generating information that can be used to reduce the pressure on environmental resources, reduce pollution on the environment, and reduce cost and energy consumption (Steinbuks & Neuhoff, 2014).  

To lower the cost of energy and the environmental problems of the manufacturing process, the automotive manufacturers of original equipment emphasizes on the efficiency of energy and management strategies of thermal energy. This proposed research seeks to assess the automotive manufacturing process and the measures undertaken by the producers to enable the realization of sustainable sectors including the whole process of manufacturing and related sources of energy and uses, the paint shows that focus on the process description in terms of sources of energy used and affect the painting process, practices of energy efficiency and strategies of heat recovery used by the manufacturers of the original equipment of automotive in the whole process of manufacturing, the future and current steps of the sector of automotive toward low carbon vehicles such as electric vehicles and the materials used in the process of manufacturing. There are many opportunities for reducing the use of energy when the vehicle is being manufactured. They include developing more effective materials and technologies, implementing good management practices and energy, and increasing the use of renewable energy sources (Jing & Ramli, 2019)

Automotive manufacturing plant: energy use and facilities

The process of manufacturing automotive involves complex and long supply chains. It includes the production of raw materials like plastic, aluminum, steel and glass, components, fabricated parts, subsystem, and the sales and distribution of vehicles. The sector is affected and also affected by the sectors of energy-intensive industries such a glass, steel, and petroleum industries that supply rubber and plastics for the production of tires. Energy used in the automobile plant can be grouped as secondary and primary. Primary sources of energy are fuel, electric and carriers of secondary energy that are generated from primary sources include hot and chilled water, compressed air, and steam. The automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEM) tend to use different materials and processes in practice because of diversity in the models and volumes of suppliers of vehicles, energy sources, climate, and use of renewable sources of energy (Sina, et al., 2019).

Project Summary

Because of the high usage of secondary carriers’ energy, most of the plants that manufacture vehicles power their lines of production by using an on-site transmission system and conversion for energy. Consumption of electricity for the systems and facilities common to the industry infrastructure is distributed among heating, painting, air conditioning and ventilation, lighting, welding, compressed air, and tools for handling materials (Illi & Kim, 2018).

Common facilities of the plant include; the consumption energy through lighting depends on the requirement of the facility, structure of the building, and availability of daylights. HVAC units supply the air to the booth of paints and provide air conditioning to areas. The HVAC’s performance ensures the quality of painting and productivity of workers of the final product. Motors consumers highest quantity of electricity in the manufacturing industry especially in the assembly shop. Motors get the use in many systems like HVAC, fans, compressed air among others (Asslander & Roloff, 2010).

Fans uses high amount of energy in the manufacturing plants especially the painting process. Pumps are applied in the shop of painting to deliver hot water and chilled water to units of air supply to feed chemicals to the system of collection. A compressed air system is used for many operations such as stamping, painting, and assembling. Techniques of welding are used in the industry of automobiles to get the permanent joint of the body components of vehicles. A common technique is a laser beam, spot, metal active gas, and metal inert gas welding.

Iron and steel are the materials used to make the vehicle BIW, the research for cars of lightweight will improve modification of materials used for making vehicle body. Materials can be made to be a mixture of carbon fiber, steel of high strength, magnesium, aluminum, and plastic with high strength to weight ratio. Whether vehicles that are lightweight can lower the use of energy and effects on the environment in the automotive industry is related to how the components are produced. Electric vehicles are optimal strategy for good management of the energy and decrease of emissions of vehicles, noise, and environmental impacts (Nallusamy, et al., 2015).

The main objective of the proposed research is to assess the energy efficiency in the automotive manufacturing industry. Specific objective include:

• To assess different vehicle parts and their energy consumption
• To assess how energy efficiency can be enhanced in the manufacturing process of automotive
• To assess different technologies used to reduce energy consumption in the automotive industry.

The methodology of this study is based on the literature review where the past research on the energy efficiency in the automobile industries is assessed. Automotive OEMs produce several parts of the vehicle but some components like steering, brake system, and suspension are manufactured by the authorized companies the process of manufacturing vehicle include;

Keywords

An onsite shop for stamping can be established depending on the production process and manufacturers. In the shop many manufacturing processes of sheet metal is done to produce 300-350 parts per vehicle body. Materials from steel coil are transformed gradually into the body parts like roofs, fender, and hood. If it is done at the on-site, this process accounts for higher use of compressed air (JiantongSong, et al., 2015).

The body shop is the place where raw materials provided by the outside suppliers are transformed to make the vehicle body. This process comprised the assembly of several parts by different operations of welding. Steel and aluminum are used currently but the plastics are also used for bumpers and doors. Automotive industries are moving towards using plastics and cheaper and lighter materials like fiberglass and aluminum. The process of manufacturing the body include treating metal casting, joining, and forming. Assembly can be performed automatically b the use of robots or manually.  Electricity is needed for robots, welding, and conveyors and they are the main consumption of energy in the facility. The vehicle body is transferred to the paint shop (Bakthavatsalam, 2010).

Powertrain cover all parts like transmission, engine, and differential among others. In the shop of powertrain, transmission and engine parts cast manufactured by the automotive EOMs or suppliers from outside are assembled to make the powertrain. Casting metal, treating, foraging, and forming are processes of intense energy applied in making the components of the power train. Casting is done during the process of manufacturing engines and other components where fuel and electricity are used for many operations like welding, sheet forming, handing materials, and transport. Tooling, machining, cutting metals, drilling, and grinding are done under wet and dry conditions and is dependent on the use of cutting fluid. Steam and natural gas are used if the components are produced on-site. In the shop of chassis, the powertrain, braked, wheels, steering system, exhaust, and the suspension is mounted on the frame of steel through the process of pressing.  Chassis frame forms the vehicle basis by providing stability when driving and electricity is used during these processes of assembly.

The shop of paints gives good protection and appearance against corrosion and weather to the vehicle body and other parts. It comprised of sealing and painting operations and it uses the highest quantity of energy during the prices of manufacturing vehicles.

The final assembly is the last stage in the production where the painted car body is mounted will all the subcomponents assembled conveyed by the power train. Fluids like brake fluids and coolants are added in the process to the vehicle. At the end of the assembling the vehicle, testing, and inspection are done is normally the final step in the process of production before sale and delivery of the vehicle. If the components such as tires, sea, windshields, and dashboard assemblies are made on-site, then steam and natural gas are used, and when the conveyors and robots are used then compressed air and electricity are used (Williams, et al., 2011). 

Automotive Manufacturing Plant: Energy Use and Facilities

Management of energy has been enhanced by the vehicle OEMs for the decreased use of energy and improved savings of energy. Combined power and heat systems supply heat, steam, electricity, and recover thermal energy to generate steam and hot water. This reduces the cost of production and impacts on the environment. Variable speed drives lower the speed of motor by the stator voltage terminal curtails the consumption of energy by motors. Possible solutions and realization of the conveyors with perfect components like chains, belts, drive systems, and idlers can reduce energy consumption.

Light efficiency can lower the sensible gain of heat in the building like using solid-state lighting that emits diodes or the application of the system of automatic light and motion sensors control has reduced the consumption of light. Recovery of mechanical energy by the flywheels in the shop of vehicle assembly uses the concept the same to the use of systems of kinetic energy.  When the body of the vehicle press stops, the energy of mechanical is applied to accelerate the flywheels that will be used to restart and re-accelerate the process of pressing the vehicle body. This technology of flywheel can store energy and leads to the reduction of consumption of fuel. The energy efficiency of the system of compressed air has contributed to heat recovery and energy efficiency for automotive OEMs (Illi & Kim, 2018).

Strategies for energy efficiency include maintenance of the pipes that leaks, reducing drop of pressure, switching off and on according to the production, and replacing tools powered by air with electric motors. For hot water boilers and steam, practices of energy efficiency based are based on the maintenance principles, enhance regulation of controlling flow, and reducing the loss of heat. The process of welding is a very automatic efficiency of energy that has been attained through the control and the use of effective inverter and welding technology to lower the use of energy. This new technology which is based on metal sheets parts production with incremental of double-side can reduce the use of energy. Automotive industries managed to remove the deposition of primer coat and process of curing to result in the reduction of shop’s costs, capital, and consumption of energy because of the absence of a booth of primer paints and other equipment (Sina, et al., 2019).

With the demand for heat and electricity during vehicle manufacturing, the QEMs are using the alternative of renewable sources of energy such as energy sources of low carbon.

Table 1: Renewable energy in the automobile industry (JiantongSong, et al., 2015)

The results of this proposed reach will be published in a peer-review journal in the field of mechanical engineering. These results will be used in the presentations at conferences and workshops. The findings will be discussed with the general public, practitioners, and scientific communities. The information generated from this research will be used to formulate policies that will be used to ensure energy efficiency in automobile industries. Vehicle industries will be able to manufacture vehicles using renewable sources of energy and energy-efficient sources that reduce pollution to the environment.  

The estimated timeline is this project is one and half year which have 72 weeks

References

Asslander, M. & Roloff, J., 2010. Endangering social and economic sustainability: supplier management in the automobile industry. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 2(3), p. 256.

Bakthavatsalam, A., 2010. Guiding Principles for Accounting Consumption of Energy in Multi-unit Process Industries. Energy Engineering, 107(4), pp. 69-79.

Illi, K. & Kim, C., 2018. Supply Chain Efficiency Measurement to Maintain Sustainable Performance in the Automobile Industry. Sustainability, 10(8), p. 2852.

JiantongSong, Li, J. & Yang, X., 2015. Life Cycle Assessment on the Energy Consumption and Emissions of Alternative Fuels of Automobile. The Open Fuels & Energy Science Journal, 8(1), pp. 276-280.

Jing, T. & Ramli, R., 2019. Multi-objective optimization of all-wheel drive electric formula vehicle for performance and energy efficiency using evolutionary algorithms. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering, 234(5), pp. 1472-1479.

Nallusamy, S., Ganesan, M., Balakannan, K. & Shankar, C., 2015. Environmental Sustainability Evaluation for an Automobile Manufacturing Industry Using Multi-Grade Fuzzy Approach. International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa, Volume 19, pp. 123-129.

Sina, N., Reza, M. & Esfahanian, V., 2019. A novel method to improve vehicle energy efficiency: Minimization of tire power loss. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering, 234(4), pp. 1153-1166.

Steinbuks, J. & Neuhoff, K., 2014. Assessing energy price induced improvements in efficiency of capital in OECD manufacturing industries. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 68(2), pp. 340-356.

Williams, C., Fuenmayor, A. & Dasi, S., 2011. Innovation and creativity in the automobile industry: environmental proposals and initiatives. The Service Industries Journal, 31(12), pp. 1931-1942.

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