White Paper: Unlock the Potential of Lubricants to Reduce Energy Consumption
Authored by John Sander, Vice President of Technology, Lubrication Engineers, Inc.
Better lubrication is key to significant energy savings and can greatly impact the bottom line. For plant managers focused on reducing operating costs, this becomes even more critical amidst evolving regulations and financial pressures. This white paper explores how adopting lubrication reliability best practices can simultaneously lower energy consumption, reduce emissions, and improve overall efficiency in manufacturing plants.
Introduction Energy usage is a cornerstone of today’s society. Economic development and improved standards of living both rely upon the availability of energy. According to The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2030 by Exxon Mobil, energy usage per person varies dramatically around the world but equates to an average of 200,000 Btu a day, which is 15 billion Btu per second. (1) This same study points out that each person has direct and indirect energy demands. Direct demand of energy is the energy that drives their personal vehicles and operates their homes, while indirect demand is the energy that heats and cools buildings, generates power, produces goods and services, and provides mass transportation of goods and people.
As the lesser developed parts of the world modernize, their needs for energy will grow, resulting in increased costs for fuel worldwide. Along with this, many of the world’s governments are passing stricter laws regulating clean air and water, toxic waste, pesticides, endangered species and more. These factors – combined with a struggling economy – result in a challenge for plant operations managers, which is to reduce operating costs. Often, this means doing more with less.
One way to reduce operating costs is to reduce energy consumption. Upgrading plant equipment to take advantage of newer, more energy-efficient technologies can reduce energy costs. Unfortunately, in a challenging economic environment capital may not be available for plant upgrades. Simple changes in habits can also create considerable savings. One such change is improving the lubrication reliability program. According to Peter Thorpe, product application specialist at Shell South Africa, “From a cost point of view alone, lubricant costs are negligible when compared to energy costs, even before the production efficiencies of high-performance lubricants are factored in.” (2)
Electric utility bills generally dwarf maintenance and lubricant costs. All three are part of any manufacturing operation. So, while controlling or reducing maintenance and lubricant costs is important, reducing electric utility usage is critical. This paper will show that tremendous opportunities exist to use an improved lubrication reliability program to decrease plant energy costs, thereby increasing profitability.
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