Achieving Sustainability Goals Through Data: Lessons from the 2022 Sartorius Data Analytics User Meeting
More than ever, organizations are pursuing sustainability projects to reduce energy and resource use, minimize greenhouse gas emissions, and improve supply chain performance. One of the key learnings from the two-day event in Jersey City, NJ, was that by collecting and analyzing data with the Sartorius Umetrics® Suite of Data Analytics, companies could apply analytics to generate deep insights to guide their sustainability-related initiatives and improve their overall resource efficiency.
Plus, thanks to SIMCA®-online, companies can now conduct real-time sustainability analysis on vast quantities of data across infinite processes.
This article is posted on our Science Snippets Blog
Data Analytics for Environmental Sustainability
Data analytics and environmental sustainability are unavoidable hot topics in the biopharmaceutical industry and beyond. Many are using data to gain new insights into their processes, but relatively few companies are successfully leveraging data analytics to achieve their sustainability goals.
However, the same principles that can be applied to solve developmental or manufacturing problems can also be applied to sustainability issues. This was highlighted at the 2022 Sartorius Data Analytics User Meeting by Nate Verhanovitz, who spoke about the work MSU did with SIMCA® to enhance their sustainable practices.
Michigan State University: Using Multivariate Analysis to Decrease Expense and Carbon Emissions in a Power House Application
Nate Verhanovitz, Performance Engineer Power and Water Infrastructure Planning and Facilities, Michigan State University
Founded in 1855, Power MSU at Michigan State University supplies power to 49,695 students in 560 buildings across a 5,300-acre campus (280,000 MWh annual net generation). The Simon plant, where SIMCA® is used, operates four steam boilers and one heat recovery steam generator.
According to MSU, a very good combined heat and power plant (CHP) has "70%HHV thermal efficiencies (30% waste heat)", implying that "there is a tremendous opportunity for reducing carbon emissions and expenses by increasing efficiency." This is where an analytics technology such as SIMCA® comes in.
When data from the largest boiler in the fleet was fed into SIMCA®, the PCA plot showed two distinct states:
Figure 1. PCA Plot Shows Two Distinct States Indicating a Boiler Issue
When a root cause analysis was performed, MSU found that feedwater heater and temperature fluctuations caused by leaks were the primary issues impacting the cycle efficiency.
After repairs were made, MSU was able to "improve cycle efficiency by 0.79%, avoided $120,000 in fuel costs, and reduced CO2e emissions by 780 metric tons for a single boiler in one year".
After realizing these savings in a period of three months, they applied the same analysis to their turbine equipment.
Figure 2. MSU’s turbine efficiency improved following the implementation of the Sartorius SIMCA® technology decreasing expenses and carbon emissions
At the time, plant operators received low oil pressure alarms that engineers could not diagnose. Six months of data were inputted into SIMCA® (over 1,000 variables), and SIMCA® immediately identified thrust bearing as the likely root cause. Subsequently, the turbine was opened for inspection, and "SIMCA® correctly identified the problem and prevented further damage and repairs to the $4M rotor".
As a result of the data analytics initiative at MSU, new sustainability goals have been set to "save between 1-3% of utility demand and waste reduction, avoiding fuel costs on the order of $1M/year and ~10,000 metric tons of CO2e."
Data Analytics User Meeting 2022
Read more: Data analytics in the energy industry | MSU Case Study
Big Data Analytics Driving Sustainable Development
In today's day and age, data and analytical technology play a central role in decision-making and accountability. In every business sector imaginable, the analysis of large datasets has become a routine activity. Similar techniques can, and should, be adopted to gain real-time insights, identify environmental risks, and drive systematic improvements.
"To Sartorius, sustainability means operating responsibly over the long term – with respect to business partners, employees and society as to natural resources. Sustainability is one of our three corporate values"
Joachim Kreuzburg, CEO Sartorius
Read more: Sartorius Corporate Responsibility
Read more: The Best of the Sartorius Data Analytics User Meeting 2022
