Decreasing Energy Intensity in Manufacturing Assessing the Strategies and Future Directions of the Industrial Technologies Program (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-10
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This report represents the consensus conclusions and recommendations of the committee. PROGRAM-LEVEL EVALUATIONS Strategic Plan of the Industrial Technologies Program The ITP Strategic Plan describes the program's mission and vision and outlines six key strategies for achieving improvements in industrial energy efficiency and environmental performance: · To focus on energy-intensive industries, · To use public-private partnerships to plan and implement the program, 1 Energy intensity is defined in the ITP Strategic Plan as energy consumed in British thermal units (Btu)
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industry for decreased energy intensity and improved environmental protection. The ITP Strategic Plan contains two overall quantitative goals: a 25 percent decrease in energy intensity for the IOFs between 2002 and 2020 and the commercialization of more than 10 industrial energy efficiency technologies between 2003 and 2010.3 The committee recommends that the ITP provide additional information on how these goals were selected and how their achievement will be measured.
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EVALUATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL SUBPROGRAMS The committee was asked to review the ITP's seven Industry of the Future subprograms by evaluating the individual effectiveness of each subprogram, its integration with the overall ITP strategy, and the likelihood of its achieving its goals. In addition, the committee was asked to review the five crosscutting subprograms (combustion, sensors and automation, industrial materials of the future, supporting industries, and software tool development)
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Overall, the committee finds the research portfolio of the forest products subprogram to be consistent with the mission and goals of the ITP. To sharpen the focus on energy, environmental, and competitiveness issues in the forest products industry, the committee recommends that the ITP: · Involve small companies, entrepreneurs, suppliers, and equipment manufacturers to a greater extent in the strategic process of defining focus areas and barriers, as well as participating in and providing constructive comments during proposal reviews; · Undertake a critical review of the results of the 2004 paper technology summit, with the goal of updating the industry roadmap and identifying grand challenges; · Include energy and exergy balances, as well as economic constraints of the industry, in analysis when selecting portfolio directions; · Develop a mechanism for obtaining ideas and concepts from relevant sources outside the forest products industry, its related academic programs, and the traditional suppliers and equipment manufacturers; and
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To further increase the impact of the mining subprogram, the committee recommends: · Clarifying the definitions of focus areas, barriers, and pathways in the MYPP, and soliciting additional input from The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society, particularly its extraction and processing division; · Providing more detailed information on the assumptions and calculations used in the footprint and bandwidth analyses; · Considering research on solid-liquid and solid-solid separations despite the fact that these processes are not common to all sectors of the mining industry; · Considering risk-benefit analysis in project selection in order to take into account the
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The committee recommends improvement in the following areas: · Obtaining better independent reviews of data sources and facts and figures to provide a strong foundation for policy decisions; · Moving the power-delivery modeling focus area from the ITP steel subprogram to another DOE unit; · Increasing the subprogram emphasis on secondary processing and specialty steels -- areas in which maximum benefits can be derived from both energy and economic standpoints; · Clarifying mechanisms and providing guidance for protecting intellectual property arising from ITP-funded projects; · Defining more clearly what constitutes a successful project and how underperforming projects are handled; · Leveraging of efforts through SBIR and STTR mechanisms to involve R&D organizations and universities in the early stages of project development; and · Leveraging of resources within the EERE and other programs and with the National Science Foundation's Steel Research Centers. Overarching Recommendations for Industry of the Future Subprograms While evaluating the seven IOF subprograms described above, the committee identified several overarching issues and programmatic best practices relevant to all seven of these subprograms as well as to the crosscutting subprograms described below.
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The committee recommends that: · Funding for the implementation of wireless networking of sensors be redirected toward more fundamental, high-risk development of new sensor technology; · Research be undertaken to improve sensing of the composition and properties of multicomponent and multiphase industrial streams, especially surface and interfacial properties; · A vehicle for joint participation in sensor and automation development be created -- for example, the development of a family of sensors for which the same technology could be adapted to handle a wide range of applications across several industries; · Better metrics be developed for determining the benefit to all ITP subprograms from investment in sensor and automation development; · Vendors be included early in the development process and communication be improved among the IOFs on existing sensor and automation needs and activities; and · A sensor development project be identified that can be included in a grand challenge.
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However, the committee believes that the prospective portfolio for this subprogram is on track to achieve the ITP's mission and that the supporting industries subprogram has a role to play in any crosscutting grand challenges that are identified by the ITP. The committee recommends that: · Bandwidth analyses be performed for the industrial heating equipment and fabricated metals areas; · The different areas of the supporting industries subprogram be packaged differently, particularly in industrial heating equipment, to avoid overlap with other subprograms; · More breakthrough projects be included in the portfolio, perhaps jointly with other subprograms; and · More transparency for GPRA analytical data be provided.
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In the spirit of continuing to improve an already excellent program, the committee offers the following recommendations: · Explore new ways to benefit industries other than those directly targeted through Industrial Technologies Program partnerships. Program managers should increase efforts to promote and disseminate the ITP's accomplishments and broaden its benefits to additional energy-intensive industrial locations by: -- Increasing face-to-face contact of ITP subprogram staff with technology developers, equipment manufacturers, system designers, and technology end users by encouraging appropriate travel for headquarters personnel and mandating their attendance at technical meetings, at visits to project sites, and at potential end-user locations; -- Allocating additional resources to the regional offices (ROs)
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As part of a grand challenge strategy, the ITP should continue to pursue plans to increase the average size of projects, but it should also continue to maintain a healthy balance of small, medium, and large projects. · Redirect student education activities to other governmental entities that have direct educational missions, with the exception of those activities directly related to the plant assessments performed by students for the ITP's Industrial Assessment Centers.
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