• Energy Research

The glass industry is highly energy-intensive, consuming approximately 500–700 million GJ each year. Replacing inefficient equipment with better-performing equipment is a good strategy to reduce the energy consumption of a glass plant. Since there are many alternative solutions, the choice of which technological improvement to implement is usually difficult. Therefore, a review of solutions to reduce energy consumption in a glass plant is pivotal. The literature offers similar studies, but they are not sufficiently up-to-date and do not represent the actual state of the art, which should be updated. Thus, this paper aims to provide an updated list of alternative solutions, clustering them into different categories (e.g., the process stage). Moreover, this paper investigates the current applicability of energy-saving solutions in Italy. Specifically, a sample of 103 Italian companies is considered and the type of interventions that the companies recently implemented or that they intend to adopt is analyzed. Quantitative statistical and economic analyses were conducted to highlight the most popular solutions and determine their cost-effectiveness. The results show that most interventions consist of replacing machinery with more efficient ones, mainly in auxiliary systems (132 out of 426). The outcome of this paper could represent a guide to select energy-saving solutions.

Logistics is a vital activity for the economic growth of an organization as it manages the flow of materials and information within, into, and out of the organization, as well as reverse flow. Like many other industrial processes, logistics has also been impacted by the rise of Industry 4.0 technologies, which has highlighted the significance of Logistics 4.0. However, Logistics 4.0 is mainly focused on economic benefits, while overlooking environmental and social concerns. To address this, a method is proposed that takes into account the three goals of sustainable development when selecting the best technology for internal material handling activities. Firstly, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to examine the application of 4.0 technologies in logistics processes and their impact on economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Secondly, based on the findings of the review, a three-level analytic hierarchy process was proposed to identify the optimal 4.0 technology for internal logistics. To demonstrate the practicality of the proposed method, it was tested on three companies. The results showed that additive manufacturing, exoskeletons, and collaborative robots are the most suitable options for achieving sustainable development goals within Logistics 4.0.

The conveniency between remanufacturing a single mechanical product and its new production is a highly investigated topic across various disciplines, including supply chain management. To this end, a comparison was made among three different configurations of the supply chain network: the traditional network for new production, the network with remanufacturing and direct interaction between customer and manufacturer, and the network with remanufacturing and indirect interaction between customer and manufacturer through a distribution center. The evaluation of scenarios for the remanufacturing conveniency of remanufacturing was conducted from both an economic and energetic perspective, generating 10'000 cases using the Sobol quasi-random low-discrepancy sequence. The generation was carried out for both economic and energetic analyses for three types of materials, namely steel, aluminum, and titanium, for which complete datasets are provided: Steel_EconomicAnalysis.xlsx: dataset for economic analysis for the remanufacturing conveniency of mechanical products in steel Steel_EnergeticAnalysis.xlsx: dataset for energetic analysis for the remanufacturing conveniency of mechanical products in steel Aluminum_EconomicAnalysis.xlsx: dataset for economic analysis for the remanufacturing conveniency of mechanical products in aluminum Aluminum_EnergeticAnalysis.xlsx: dataset for energetic analysis for the remanufacturing conveniency of mechanical products in aluminum Titanium_EconomicAnalysis.xlsx: dataset for economic analysis for the remanufacturing conveniency of mechanical products in titanium Titanium_EnergeticAnalysis.xlsx: dataset for energetic analysis for the remanufacturing conveniency of mechanical products in titanium