Manufacturing . . . continued
Green manufacturing . . . continued
Another aspect of green manufacturing that many companies are focusing on is energy efficiency within the manufacturing process. This aspect of green manufacturing may be an easier sell to some business leaders, because as energy costs climb, reducing energy consumption per unit manufactured can directly and immediately help maintain a company's profitability.
Scott Hibbard of Bosch Rexroth, a global manufacturer of electric drive, hydraulic, and assembly line equipment, for example, points to a number of energy efficiency strategies in machine tooling, from replacing single-speed motors with variable speed motors, to capturing waste energy during machine tool braking and converting it back to electricity for the factory's use, much the way a hybrid car generates electricity during braking. Double spindle machining equipment is also being used by some companies to put out twice the product, while using less than twice the energy. (See "Power Down," Cutting Tool Engineering, July 2009; and Scott Hibbard, "Six keys to sustainable manufacturing", Plant Engineering, 7/1/09)
As more American businesses grapple with rising energy costs, the regulatory headaches of hazardous materials, and the growing consumer preference for environmentally friendly products and companies, it seems likely these green manufacturing trends will continue.
Chicken feathers to fuel cells . . . continued
Whether or not chicken-feather-based hydrogen storage tanks, or hydrogen fuel cells for that matter, prove important to our future sustainable economy, Wool's work is indicative of an important new approach to manufacturing. This sustainable approach looks for recyclable waste products, organic materials, renewable materials and/or non-toxic materials that can be used to manufacture the things we need, rather than using non-renewable, mined or toxic materials for manufacturing. Chicken feathers happen to be a material that meets all four of these sustainable characteristics.
(As for the future of hydrogen-powered vehicles -- Shell Oil opened its first pilot hydrogen vehicle fueling station in Los Angeles recently, but significant doubts remain about the environmental wisdom of creating a hydrogen-based transportation system. Hydrogen is not itself a renewable energy source, but is rather a clean-burning energy-storage medium that produces mostly water vapor during combustion.
Hydrogen is currently derived primarily from methane, a greenhouse gas. At the moment, methane is not produced in any quantity by renewable methods, but is obtained by drilling into finite natural gas deposits trapped in the earth, like petroleum. This makes hydrogen produced from methane a non-renewable resource, at least for now. There is also talk of producing hydrogen from water, but this is likely to involve using environmentally hazardous nuclear or coal-fired electrical generating plants, at least in the early years. Moreover, few hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are available at this time, and it is not clear when cost-effective hydrogen vehicles will be widely available.)
Page first published: 9/6/09