MANAGING TECHNOLOGY
Environmental two-step
The twin challenges of green engineering are to measure it
and then fix it, says National Instruments
OVER THE last year, the mainstream media
has dramatically increased its emphasis on all
things green.
Concerns about global climate change,
soaring energy prices and increased
government legislation are driving new
priorities and expectations — from consumer
products to corporate responsibility and
sustainability plans.
To meet these new demands, companies
around the world are scrambling to create
products and technologies that address these
concerns and to change the ways in which
they are developed and manufactured. The
profile of these issues has been raised by
politicians but, ultimately, the responsibility
for solving these big problems will
fall on the shoulders of the world’s scientists
and engineers.
This challenge can be broken down into
two basic steps — measure it and then fix it. Of
the former, Linda Fisher, chief sustainability
officer at DuPont said in this January’s issue
of The Economist: ‘We find that with energy
and greenhouse gases if you start to measure,
people reduce the usage. Measuring is not a
simple task, but once a company has a proper
baseline, it can see what can be changed.’
The second step was highlighted by
Al Gore, the head of Alliance for Climate
Protection and former US vice-president, in
his keynote address at last year’s Embedded
Systems Conference. He said: ‘Engineers have
a vision and must implement a system to fix
problems it is required to fix.’
Essentially then, engineers and scientists
have a two-step task: ascertain and monitor
the performance of existing systems, processes
and the environment so that improvements
and required changes can be identified; then
develop new methods to improve, create and
implement effective changes.
This process, known as green
engineering, is the use of measurement
and control techniques to design, develop
and improve products, technologies and
processes that result in environmental and
economic benefits.
The scope of green engineering means all
companies, across all industries, can make
changes to have a positive impact. To achieve
their goals, businesses large and small are
investing in tools to measure, control and
36
improve the efficiency of their operations.
The good news for engineers is the
technologies required to undertake these tasks
— such as high-level graphical programming
tools, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)
for advanced control, and higher speed and
precision measurement hardware — are
becoming much more accessible, easier to use,
and at a lower cost than ever before.
Having these technologies in the hands of
those who are closest to the problems means
that solutions can be developed much more
quickly and successfully than ever before.
Gore has also discussed how ‘embedded
systems that have increasing amounts of
intelligence can be the most powerful part of
the solution to this crisis’.
An example of this is global giant Nucor
Steel, one of the largest recyclers in the US.
When it acquired the Marion Steel Company
in 2005, one of its first actions was to add
automation systems throughout the
newly-acquired plant to increase efficiency
and safety.
Last year Nucor recycled more than 22
million tonnes of steel, including nine million
cars. Melting and recasting steel requires a
large amount of electricity, so even small
increases in efficiency throughout this process
result in huge energy and economic savings.
The company used technology from
National Instruments, including programma-
ble automation controllers (PACs) and
LabVIEW, to develop a variety of automation
systems such as a scale and weighing system,
an online reactor in series with the furnace
and a remote switching station.
These have, according to Nucor, greatly
reduced electricity usage, eliminated potential
safety issues and contributed to the company’s
commitment to environmental stewardship.
For example, since implementing the weighing
system, Nucor has drastically decreased the
number of re-heats it performs, reducing the
2007 total to 10 out of more than 6,000 batches.
As society’s environmental and energy
challenges become more acute, the world
needs talented, innovative engineers and
scientists to change and improve the planet
more than ever. The hope is that green
engineering encourages and empowers them
to identify problems and define solutions — to
measure it and fix it.
Read more green engineering case studies at
ni.com/greenengineering
Joel Shapiro is group manager, NI Industrial
Measurement Control Group; Chris De Filippo
is product manager, NI Sound and Vibration;
and Ian Bell is technical marketing director,
NI UK
the EnGIneeR 19 MAY–1 JUNE 2008
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