Mathematical Modeling of Energy Efficiency in Thai Sugar Mills: a Case Study of Different Production Scales from Three Mills

Abstract

Energy efficiency in energy-intensive industry is the crucial issue on reduction of energy usage that affects energy cost and carbon emissions. One of the promised approaches in decreasing energy consumption is practicing energy efficiency improvement. In order to attain such conditions, energy efficiency models of the process must have to be known as a primary step by gathering data and relevant parameters to energy consumption throughout the production process. In this paper, a case study of mathematical modeling of energy efficiency of three different production scales from three sugar mills in Thailand is proposed. By appropriate applying mathematical models to the given data collection, the retrieval models of energy consumption and Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) had been obtained with a certain accuracy and precise prediction during a highly non-linear data range. The results illustrated that electrical and thermal processes of those three sugar mills have similar energy consumption and specific energy consumption models, whereas the retrieved energy consumption models are different to the specific ones respectively. The key finding results in this study is useful for energy management in sugar production industry in two levels. The first is production planning with minimum energy cost by applying the SEC models corresponding to thermal or electrical energy related process. The second is that the SEC models can locate the most- significant energy use and opportunity to technical improvement or retrofitting the process.