EINSTEIN – Expert system for an Intelligent Supply of Thermal Energy in Industry. Audit methodology and software tool

Panel: Panel 5. Energy efficiency in industry

Authors:
Hans Schweiger, energyXperts.NET, Spain
Stoyan Danov, energyXperts.NET, Spain
Claudia Vannoni, Sapienza University of Rome – Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics, Italy
Enrico Facci, Sapienza University of Rome – Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics, Italy
Christoph Brunner, Joanneum Research, Institute of Sustainable Techniques and Systems – JOINTS, Austria
Bettina Slawitsch, Joanneum Research, Institute of Sustainable Techniques and Systems – JOINTS, Austria

Abstract

For optimising thermal energy supply in industry, a holistic integral approach is required that includes possibilities of demand reduction by heat recovery and process integration, and by an intelligent combination of efficient heat and cold supply technologies.

EINSTEIN is a tool-kit for fast and high quality thermal energy audits in industry, composed by an audit guide describing the methodology and by a software tool that guides the auditor through all the audit steps.

The main features of EINSTEIN are: (1) a basic questionnaire helps for systematic collection of the necessary information with the possibility to acquire data by distance; (2) special tools allow for fast consistency checking and estimation of missing data, so that already with very few data some first predictions can be made; (3) the data processing is based on standardised models for industrial processes and industrial heat supply systems; (4) semi-automatization: the software tool gives support to decision making for the generation of alternative heat & cold supply proposals, carries out automatically all the necessary calculations, including dynamic simulation of the heat supply system, and creates a standard audit report.

The software tool includes modules for benchmarking, automatic design of heat exchanger networks, and design assistants for the heat and cold supply system.

The core of the expert system software tool is available for free, as an open source software project. This type of software development has shown to be very efficient for dissemination of knowledge and for the continuous maintenance and improvement thanks to user contributions.