Energy management and improvement strategies in a local spice manufacturing plant / Jeyanthan Silvalinggam

Jeyanthan, Silvalinggam (2017) Energy management and improvement strategies in a local spice manufacturing plant / Jeyanthan Silvalinggam. Masters thesis, University of Malaya.

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Abstract

Environmental impact and diminishing natural resources are global phenomenon confronted around the world including developing countries such as Malaysia. Increasing electricity tariff is influenced by this aggravated impact to curb demand side wastefulness of energy consumption. Specifically, the outcome of price increment and other derivative economical elements can further be observed in various industries such as spice manufacturing plant as focused in this thesis. Generally, in spice processing industry, the cost of electricity synonymously referred to the uses of grinders and cooling equipment. As a result, the staggering operating cost of the process had triggered the key persons affiliated with technical exposure to look ways into minimize the cost of operation in this industry. In view of this, improving energy efficiency of the plant machineries and equipment by means of retrofit or control has become the primary concern that need to be seriously addressed. In observing the situation, an audit has been carried out in a local spice processing plant. Tasks were initiated to list down the operating segments that exist in the plant and to identify the segment which consume most energy. Besides that, attention was also focused in areas where little energy is consumed but revealing a brighter prospect for improvement. Following that, alternative ways are looked at on how to reduce energy consumption based on the literatures and researches done in the past. In this regard, the study of energy savings demonstrated in this thesis has focused from a broader perspective taking into account the less energy user too. Throughout the study, an analysis performed on the energy billing for three years from 2014 to 2017 on the trend of growth of electricity consumption. Further data acquisition for seven months on the available energy meters made a solid path on the areas where the energy consumption can be saved while CO2 emission can be reduced. Electrical motors, variable speed drives, compressed air system and lighting improvement are areas that are focused in detail in this study. The analysis results have shown and concluded that the electricity energy can be saved efficiently in this industry. Indeed, the finding of the study has proposed to explore further in diverse field for more energy saving opportunity in the future.

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