Asea Brown Boveri, better known as ABB, recently released an interesting paper titled “End-To-End Energy Intelligence – Closing the Efficiency Execution Gap.” ABB’s article demonstrates that while industrial companies claim to treat energy efficiency as a strategic priority, most still focus on low-disruption, peripheral upgrades instead of tackling the much larger opportunities embedded in core manufacturing processes. In other words, while owners and operators of industrial facilities may claim to operate efficiently, they are nibbling around the edges with lighting and HVAC upgrades.
My former boss used to say that we didn’t even look at lighting (literally) in an industrial facility. The lighting could be provided by blowtorches fired by synthetic gas derived from fish oil: expensive and hot, and swapping that out for T8 lamps and electronic ballasts (that was the technology at the time) wouldn’t move the utility-meter needle. Indeed!
The ABB paper states that companies are active across many categories, but in a shallow, fragmented way. This is a problem, but also an opportunity. There are always two sides to a coin. After lighting and HVAC, the next level of widget deployment includes efficient motors (yawn) and variable-speed drives. Motors, like lighting, save energy compared to a less efficient base case, while variable-frequency drives may or may not save energy depending on control and integration (override) with the systems they operate in.
Technology Deployment in Industrial Facilities
Let’s take a deeper dive into technology deployment and system optimization in industrial facilities, and I’ll pick them apart. The order of deployment may look like this, in order of popularity:
- Lighting upgrades (LEDs, controls)
- HVAC optimization (high-efficiency units, economizers, controls)
- High-efficiency electric motors
- Variable frequency drives (VFDs)
- Compressed air system optimization (leak repair, pressure reduction, controls)
- Pumping and fan system optimization (right-sizing, system redesign)
- Process heat improvements (high-efficiency burners, furnaces, insulation)
- Waste heat recovery systems (recuperators, heat exchangers, ORC systems)
- Industrial heat pumps / thermal integration
- Advanced process controls and real-time optimization (automation, digital twins, AI)
Lighting
Lighting is a snooze fest. Install LED whatever and declare victory.
HVAC
HVAC matters in industrial facilities that have major cooling loads or very stringent environmental requirements. The top five industrial categories for HVAC might look like the following:
- Data centers – massive, continuous cooling loads to maintain server reliability and uptime
- Semiconductor (chip) manufacturing – ultra-clean, tightly controlled temperature and humidity environments (cleanrooms)
- Pharmaceutical manufacturing – strict air quality, humidity, and temperature control for product integrity and regulatory compliance
- Biotechnology and life sciences labs – ventilation, pressurization, and filtration requirements for safety and contamination control
- Food and beverage processing, especially cold chain, packaging areas and food that includes powders and sugars to avoid clumping – refrigeration, humidity control, and sanitation-driven ventilation needs
Most industrial HVAC upgrades include more efficient widgets; slightly more efficient rooftop units, more efficient air and water-cooled chillers, maglev chillers (so sexy), and bolt-on building-automation systems that have the capability to deliver efficient heating and cooling, but often fall short. These approaches may capture 10-20% of the HVAC savings potential in an industrial facility, not to be confused with energy reduction. Major opportunities for HVAC savings instead include:
- Avoiding simultaneous heating and cooling (SHAC – I can make acronyms too) for dehumidification, or even plain old temperature control. This waste is still rampant in industrial facilities.
- A subset of SHAC avoidance includes dedicated outdoor air systems (DOAS) that provide cool, dry air without the need to reheat. Learning more will cost you—intellectual property isn’t free.
- Related to DOAS, proper air balancing is necessary to avoid infiltration of unconditioned hot/humid or cold/dry air. This must be hammered with inefficient SHAC for dehumidification or humidification, respectively.
- For cooling-intensive facilities like data centers, economizer technologies and approaches are critical for energy savings. Economizer cooling can eliminate the need for refrigeration (chillers). These approaches can be very complex, such as what I witnessed with a hyperscale data center with four stages of economizer cooling, including two stages in the first sub-bullet:
- Open-loop evaporative towers for the hottest weather and integrated economizer operation in milder conditions (always evaporative, freeze-limited)
- Closed-loop evaporative cooling with a fluid cooler in moderate weather
- Closed-loop dry cooling using the same fluid cooler in cold weather (no evaporation, freeze-safe)
- SHAC can be desirable if low-temperature (up to 120°F) service water heating is useful for other building loads. Heat recovery electric chillers can produce chilled water for HVAC or process cooling loads while providing service water or preheating makeup water for process loads.
- A follow-up to the previous electric heat recovery chiller is an absorption heat recovery chiller, which is a better fit for applications with a large heating load compared to cooling. Absorption heat pumps provide hot water at 150–200% efficiency while simultaneously providing free chilled water. What’s not to like? It’s merely an application in search of a use case.
Concluding this industrial HVAC thought exercise, a brilliant energy engineer will assess heating and cooling loads at the system level, proximity, integration, and controls far in advance of widget efficiency. The big bucks are wasted or saved by thinking holistically rather than accepting isolated heating and cooling needs, especially in industrial facilities that operate 24/7/365.
Next week, I will continue to assess technology and system optimization from the top ten list above.