One Auburn professor has shown that increasing an industry's environmental sustainability can lead to a lowering in its operating costs.
Jin Wang, B. Redd, associate professor in the department of chemical engineering, findings allowed her to receive a $50,000 grant from the Ray Anderson Foundation in order to further her research in curbing the energy consumption of pulp and paper mills.
"The main contribution we have developed is what is called a soft-sensor," Wang said.
The pulp and paper industry is one of Alabama's largest industries, with approximately 17 mills located within the state.
With the application of the findings from her research a minimum of 10 percent in energy savings is guaranteed for each facility.
"For example, for any industrial process, if you've ever been to any chemical plants you will see that they have pressure sensors, they have temperature sensors, they have flow meters, allow you to have a knowledge of what the current state of your process [is]," Wang said.
Her research aimed at developing a method of calculating at what point the process of pulp production was in at any given time by gauging the thickness of the glue-like substance, ligament, which bonds the wood fibers together.
The result of this information would allow changes to be made that could either speed up or slow down production, by heating or cooling the process, and would result in substantial reductions in the amount of energy necessary to produce the pulp.
Wang, who came to Auburn in 2006 after earning her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, said that funding for her research was hard to find.
The National Science Foundation, from which she will soon be receiving a $400,000 grant for her work with yeast, declined for her research in the pulp and paper industry.
"The pulp and the paper, it doesn't sound as sexy as 'nano' or 'bio.' That's the difference between science and engineering," Wang said.
Developing ways of connecting sustainability with profitability is a key point in the mission of the Ray Anderson Foundation, whose namesake, Ray Anderson, was a pioneering figure of environmental sustainability in industry.
"We funded $50,000 to support her research aimed at reducing energy and chemical consumption at pulp mills," said Harriet Langford, trustee for the foundation and one of Anderson's daughters. "I didn't know that Alabama actually had 17 mills, pulp and paper industry, so this was a great opportunity for us to encourage other people to follow her process if it works well."
Ray Anderson created a carpet business in the 1970s that would eventually become the modular carpet industry today known as Interface.
Anderson reinvented Interface in the mid-90s to be more environmentally sustainable, and cut 80 percent of the companies emissions output, according to Langford, by switching from the use of petroleum products in the material used to make the backing for the carpets.
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