This section compiles a database of more than 200 resource efficiency measures that were identified using the TEST methodology and successfully implemented within several industries across many sectors. The measures are classified by sector and subsector, type (good housekeeping, process control/modification, technology change, etc.), category of resource savings (water, energy and/or materials), scope and applicability (process or utilities). The database enables the use of predefined filters including the possibility to use keywords for an advanced search.
Each measure in the database includes a description of the problem, a technical description of the solution, the economic and environmental benefits quantified for the specific company case, the costs and the expected return on investment, suppliers of equipment as well as other aspects related to safety, maintenance, productivity and technical implementation.
It was noted that this dairy and juice company consumes volume of water to rinse the system during the CIP exceeding the benchmarked quantities. Reducing the water quantities over small steps, while monitoring the product quality lead to conservation of water and energy.
Modification to the process in order to have a prewashing stage before the boxes are emptied to the sterilization station saved significantly on water, energy and reduced the pollution load.
This practice is another example of efficient design. In this salted sesame production facility, relocating the salting station to be after sesame washing led to a decrease in the amount of salt consumed, and a reduction in water consumption for the salting process.
The pasteurization temperature within a juice manufacturing company was allowed to exceed the set limit. Maintaining the pasteurization temperature at the defined set point shall save on energy use.
Pigment grinders in this ink manufacturing facility were poorly controlled, which resulted in having the ink batches taking longer time for mixing. Setting standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the grinders operation, including control of the flow rate, monitoring of the viscosity, and the use of dispersing agents reduced the grinding time per batch, thus decreased the energy consumption.
The cleaning of moulding tools at a brake linings and clutches production company is carried out in a traditional way in a caustic soda bath, a method that is not very efficient, and also generates very heavy liquid discharges. Switching to ultrasonic cleaning optimizes the cleaning operation, reduce the cleaning time, and provide better work conditions for the workers.
This company had three superheated boilers operating in parallel. For safety reasons, the three boilers were always running, yet operating at the low end of their load factor. From the walkthrough, steam leaks were observed at several locations, thus a steam mapping was prepared to define the exact demand and supply from steam. Based on the mapping results, it was concluded that a better steam management system supplemented with a computer aided software can tremendously reduce the steam leaks, and safely switch off one boiler, saving 4% of the water consumption, and 5% of the natural gas.
Whey is one protein rich by-product that is generated from the production of cheese. In a dairy, generated whey was of mild category, thus was not possible to reuse in useful products, and was disposed to the drain. Investigations for mixing it at small quantities for the production of curdeled milk of LFC can lead to utilization of up to 25% of the produced whey