By Emily Newton, revolutionized.com
Like most other sectors, the pharmaceutical industry is responsible for significant energy consumption. Infrastructure is one of the most carbon- and energy-intensive categories from an emissions perspective, and pharmaceuticals must solve its efficiency oversights for the greater good. Process engineers and other pharmaceutical stakeholders should discover the most significant gaps, incorporate optimisations and reveal what provides the most positive results.
Inadequate HVAC optimisation
HVAC is a primary energy user in all corporate facilities, but pharmaceutical companies must maintain high air quality and climate control without wasting resources.
Problem
Many buildings need to take comprehensive HVAC optimisation into account. Some areas, like clean rooms, employ higher standards. However, these attitudes are not present in all pharma buildings or every application.
Solution
Several smart HVAC variants are on the market. Novel variable air volume (VAV) systems are adaptive. They change their airflow based on environmental metrics, like outdoor conditions, occupancy and demand.
Fixed programming assumes HVAC systems must operate at the same power at all times, but more nuanced curation is the key to energy efficiency. Energy recovery ventilation is another technological opportunity because it harnesses used energy and repurposes it.
Effectiveness
Smart HVAC systems may lead to 10%-20% energy reductions, but more is achievable when combined with other advanced technologies like VAV and heat recovery.
Suboptimal cleanroom design
Due to compliance requirements, clean rooms have higher hygiene and contaminant control standards than other pharmaceutical departments. Frequent use of compressed air, vacuums, spray systems, and other devices demands copious power. However, this does not mean energy efficiency sacrifices are necessary for maintaining quality.
Problem
Many clean rooms use systems to cycle air in and out, but the air change rate (ACR) is too high. The excess makes many clean rooms guilty of high energy consumption even though fewer changes would still abide by compliance. There may also be other oversights in clean rooms that reflect concerns across the business, such as inefficient lighting solutions, where experts would advise smarter LEDs.
Solution
Modular clean rooms are an answer because manufacturers create a consistent, reliable blueprint for optimised, compliant zones for pharma workers. They reduce energy consumption during the making process and throughout its life cycle by incorporating more mindful components, like variable speed drives (VSDs) and dynamic control systems for real-time monitoring.
Effectiveness
VSDs can lead to an ACR reduction of 30%, meaning energy consumption goes down by 66%. Combining this with the savings benefits of modular homes and clean rooms is a simple savings outlet.
Inefficient process heating
Numerous pharmaceutical processes require heating, such as the sterilisation of water for injection. Although these activities are essential, reductions are possible.
Problem
Medical organisations use outdated heating methods and antiquated technologies. These oversights combine into a wasteful procedure. Distillation, crystallisation and drying of in-progress medicines are only necessary to improve aspects like safety through purification or liquid evaporation for better medicinal packaging.
Solution
Steam generation systems are more energy-efficient than conventional boiler systems. This method extends the machine’s life span by putting less pressure on it in the long term. Microwave irradiation expedites heating processes. Despite shaving time off consumptive, time-consuming heating activities, it is often underutilised.
Effectiveness
Research in microwave irradiation validated sustainable energy, which uses less power and cuts reaction time that normally takes one or more hours to accomplish.
Neglecting Energy Management Systems (EMSs)
Comprehensive energy management requires monitoring in addition to quality peripherals to support energy-efficient processes and technologies. EMSs manifest in several ways, such as software control panels or updated transformers.
Problem
Most enterprises lack an energy management system or dashboard for visualising energy consumption across the business. Data clarity makes it easier for workforces to conceptualise what actions are wasteful and where the most impactful places are to enact change. Then, employers can retrain those contributing to inefficiency concerns to prioritise more sustainable workflows.
For example, a transformer may begin to lower in performance, executing electrical transfers with too many losses because of faulty or outdated components. Quality EMSs inform operators when performance failures or safety issues arise. It could inspire changing to a safer dead-front transformer with lower arc flash potential or discovering what shifts use excess resources because of data harvesting.
Solution
Energy management software is the most apparent answer, but its capability increases when combined with other technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Building management systems are an even more holistic solution than other structural processes and how they influence efficiency.
Effectiveness
Managers discover where they use the most energy when they have software. For example, HVACs use 65% of the energy in a pharmaceutical complex, and it is a combination of high air change rates, chilling water, and more. In a case study where a facility deployed a BMS, they found ways to save 55,000 megawatt-hours annually on chillers and reduced overall campus power consumption by 8%.
Underutilisation of Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
Cogeneration equipment streamlines electricity and thermal energy distribution from a single location instead of requiring multiple energy-intensive machines.
Problem
Most pharmaceutical companies do not use CHP, even though it eliminates some of the most energy-inefficient equipment from operations and transforms it into optimised, modern generators. Most facility blueprints need to consider this during planning, so redesigns and utility overhauls may be necessary for compatibility.
Solution
Enterprises should adopt CHP systems, like small-scale wind turbines or fuel cells, to enhance buildings. However, they may also receive third-party assistance and rely on fossil fuels.
Effectiveness
A CHP plant in Puerto Rico is expected to provide 26 gigawatt-hours of electricity to a nearby pharmaceutical company. It will produce half the carbon emissions compared to coal- and diesel-fired plants, which give energy to facilities. Additionally, the partnership alleviates electricity generation and water-chilling concerns from the medicine maker, opening more time to dedicate to other energy efficiency projects.
Poor insulation and building envelope integrity
A building’s envelope in any sector is the pillar behind energy efficiency. It mitigates outside influences, preserves internal conditions and maintains the performance of electrical systems.
Problem
The facility may need to replace old or outdated insulation. Most pharmaceutical companies neglect this because the efficiency losses from building envelope degradation are invisible, unless stakeholders try to track or audit them regularly.
Solution
Frequent insulation examinations are expensive and disruptive, so innovators began incorporating advanced imaging to save money while keeping workers on the floor. Thermal imaging is a competitive option because the technologies are accessible and accurate at identifying insulation failures. Pairing this with other insulation measures, such as updated weatherstripping and high-performance glazes on windows provides compound efficiency gains.
Effectiveness
Improving insulations makes buildings eligible for efficient certifications like LEED or BREEAM. These competitive frameworks audit efficiency ratings while giving feedback for future improvements.
Are innovations always the answer?
Revolutionary tech is plastered over the pharmaceutical landscape, promising monumental gains in productivity and revenue by installing a technique or tool. When it comes to energy-efficient modernisations, most of the claims prove worthy of consideration. Streamlining energy efficiency leads to other enhancements, like higher product quality and cheaper production prices, boosting patient care worldwide.
