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WASTE & RECYCLING
AI driving zero waste Artificial intelligence drives the way to net zero and waste in manufacturing. Aaron Yeardley works as a Carbon Reduction Engineer for Tunley Engineering. He combines his role with completing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Yeardley specialises in gathering data from clients and performing carbon calculations to present carbon footprints. He then works with the client providing solutions to help reduce their carbon footprint. He utilises his expertise in data analytics, machine learning and python coding to achieve these goals.
Aaron Yeardley
The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is already happening, and it’s transforming the way manufacturing operations are carried out. Industry 4.0 is a product of the digital era as automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies shift the central industrial control system to a smart setup that bridges the physical and digital world, addressed via the Internet of Things (IoT). Industry 4.0 is creating cyber-physical systems that can network a production process enabling value creation and real-time optimisation. The main factor driving the revolution is the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The complex algorithms involved in AI use the data collected from cyber-physical systems, resulting in “smart manufacturing”. The impact that Industry 4.0 will have on manufacturing will be astronomical as operations can be automatically optimised to produce increased profit margins. However, the use of AI and smart manufacturing can also benefit the environment. The technologies used to optimise profits can also be used to produce insights into a company’s carbon footprint and accelerate its sustainability. Some of these methods are available to help companies reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions now. Other methods have the potential to reduce global GHG emissions in the future.
Scope 3 Identification Scope 3 emissions are the emissions from a company’s supply chain, both upstream and downstream activities. This means scope 3 covers all of a company’s GHG emission sources except those that are directly created by the company and those created from using electricity. It comes as no surprise that on average Scope 3 emissions are 5.5 times greater than the combined amount from Scope 1 and Scope 2. Therefore, companies should ensure all three scopes are quantitated in their GHG emissions baseline. However, in comparison to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, Scope 3 emissions are difficult to measure and calculate. This is because of a lack of transparency in supply chains, lack of connections with suppliers, and complex industrial standards that provide misleading information. The major issues concerning Scope 3 emissions are as follows: •
Reliability of data – This includes the variability in data quality between supply chains and the uncertainty in carbon emission factors used to calculate GHG emissions.
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Double counting – Emissions can easily be double counted as supply chains of companies become interconnected. For example, transportation of a product for one company is also transportation of material for another company.
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Fair attribution of total supply chains – Given the total GHG emissions for a supply chain have been successfully counted, what is the fair responsibility of each actor in the supply chain?
AI-based tools can help establish baseline Scope 3 emissions for companies as they are used to model an entire supply chain. The tools can quickly and efficiently sort through large volumes of data collected from sensors. If a company deploys enough sensors across the whole area of operations, it can identify sources of emissions and even detect methane plumes.
AMT AUG 2022
Digital twin optimisation A digital twin is an AI model that works as a digital representation of a physical piece of equipment or an entire system. A digital twin can help the industry optimise energy management by using the AI surrogate models to better monitor and distribute energy resources and provide forecasts to allow for better preparation. A digital twin will optimise many sources of data and bring them onto a dashboard so that users can visualise it in real-time. For example, a case study in the Nanyang Technological University used digital twins across 200 campus buildings over five years and managed to save 31% in energy and 9,600 tCO2e. The research used IES’ ICL technology to plan, operate, and manage campus facilities to minimise energy consumption. Digital twins can be used as virtual replicas of building systems, industrial processes, vehicles, and many other opportunities. The virtual environment enables more testing and iterations so that everything can be optimised to its best performance. This means digital twins can be used to optimise building management making smart strategies that are based on carbon reduction.
Predictive maintenance Predictive maintenance of machines and equipment used in industry is now becoming common practice because it saves companies costs in performing scheduled maintenance, or costs in fixing broken equipment. The AI-based tool uses machine learning to learn how historical sensor data maps to historical maintenance records. Once a machine learning algorithm is trained using the historical data, it can successfully predict when maintenance is required based on live sensor readings in a plant. Predictive maintenance accurately models the wear and tear of machinery that is currently in use. The best part of predictive maintenance is that it does not require additional costs for extra monitoring. Algorithms have been created that provide accurate predictions based on operational telemetry data that is already available. Predictive maintenance combined with other AI-based methods such as maintenance time estimation and maintenance task scheduling can be used to create an optimal maintenance workflow for industrial processes. Conversely, improving current maintenance regimes which often contribute to unplanned downtime, quality defects and accidents is appealing for everybody.
