Search results for "energy efficiency"
showing 10 items of 177 documents
A new rationale for not picking low hanging fruits: The separation of ownership and control
2019
Recent attempts at explaining the energy-efficiency gap rely on considerations related to organizational and behavioral/cognitive failures. In this paper, we build on the strategic delegation literature to advance a complementary explanation. It is shown that strategic market interaction may encourage business owners to instill a bias against energy efficiency in managerial compensation contracts. Since managers respond to financial incentives, their decisions will reflect this bias, resulting in lack of investment.
Energy Policies and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources
2017
Sustainability of current energy policies and known mid-term policies are analised in their multiple facets. First an overview is given about the trend of global energy demand and energy production, analysing the share of energy sources and the geographic distribution of demand, on the basis of statistics and projections published by major agencies. The issue of sustainability of the energy cycle is finally addressed, with specific reference to systems with high share of renewable energy and storage capability, highlighting some promising energy sources and storage approaches.
Analysis of Electrical Energy Demands in Friction Stir Welding of Aluminum Alloys
2017
Abstract Manufacturing processes, as used for discrete part manufacturing, are responsible for a substantial part of the environmental impact of products. Despite that, most of metalworking processes are still poorly documented in terms of environmental footprint. To be more specific, the scientific research has well covered conventional machining processes, concerning the other processes there is a lack of knowledge in terms of environmental load characterization instead. The present paper aims to contribute to fill this knowledge gap and an energetic analysis of Friction Stir welding (FSW) is presented. Following the CO2PE! methodological approach, power studies and a preliminary time stu…
A Comparison Study of a Novel Self-Contained Electro-Hydraulic Cylinder versus a Conventional Valve-Controlled Actuator—Part 2: Energy Efficiency
2019
This research paper presents the second part of a comparative analysis of a novel self-contained electro-hydraulic cylinder with passive load-holding capability against a state of the art, valve-controlled hydraulic system that is typically used in load-carrying applications. After addressing the control design and motion performance in the first part of the study, the comparison is now focused on the systems&rsquo
Microstructural, mechanical and energy demand characterization of alternative WAAM techniques for Al-alloy parts production
2020
Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are gathering momentum as an alternative to conventional manufacturing processes. A research effort is being made worldwide to identify the most promising AM approaches. Within this category, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is among the most interesting, especially when large parts must be manufactured. In this paper, two different WAAM deposition techniques suitable for the deposition of Aluminum alloys, Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) and CMT mix drive, are analyzed and compared. With the aim of obtaining a clear picture concerning the two different techniques, microstructural analyses, mechanical property evaluation and electrical energy de…
Integrated WAAM-Subtractive Versus Pure Subtractive Manufacturing Approaches: An Energy Efficiency Comparison
2019
Over the last years, additive manufacturing (AM) has been gathering momentum both in the academic and in the industrial world. Besides the obvious benefits in terms of flexibility and process capabilities, the environmental performance of such processes has still to be properly analyzed. Actually, the advantages of additive manufacturing over conventional processes are not obvious. Indeed, different manufacturing approaches result in different amounts of involved material and in different processing energy demands. Environmental comparative analyses are hence crucial to properly characterize AM processes. In this paper, an energetic comparison between the emerging wire arc additive manufact…
An insight into the electrical energy demand of friction stir welding processes: the role of process parameters, material and machine tool architectu…
2018
The manufacturing sector accounts for a high share of global electrical energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, and therefore, the environmental impact of production processes is being more and more investigated. An analysis of power and energy consumption in friction stir welding processes can contribute to the characterization of the process from a new point of view and also provide useful information about the environmental impact of the process. An in-depth analysis of electrical energy demand of friction stir welding is here proposed. Different machine tool architectures, including an industrial dedicated machine, have been used to weld aluminum and steel sheets under different process …
A comprehensive assessment of energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plants: An efficiency analysis tree approach
2023
Producción Científica
Learning automata based energy-efficient AI hardware design for IoT applications
2020
Energy efficiency continues to be the core design challenge for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware designers. In this paper, we propose a new AI hardware architecture targeting Internet of Things applications. The architecture is founded on the principle of learning automata, defined using propositional logic. The logic-based underpinning enables low-energy footprints as well as high learning accuracy during training and inference, which are crucial requirements for efficient AI with long operating life. We present the first insights into this new architecture in the form of a custom-designed integrated circuit for pervasive applications. Fundamental to this circuit is systematic encodin…
Energy use efficiency of livestock farms in a mountain area of Sicily
2009
The research aimed to evaluate the performance (in terms of energy) of livestock farms located in a Mediterranean mountain area and characterized by different stocking rates. Farm data were collected from in-person interviews of farmers of 58 farms representative of the livestock farms of the Madonie and Nebrodi mountains area (Sicily, Italy), including several parameters related to farm characteristics, animal, crop and pasture management. The farm parameters were used to calculate input and output energy values from which agroecosystem performance indicators were derived. Increasing stocking rate corresponded to a more than proportional increase in total inputs per unit area because of a …