The Foundation Platform

Feasibility Study of an AI Platform to Improve Energy Efficiency of Steel and Glass Manufacture

Applying artificial intelligence to reveal energy efficiencies in Foundation Industries

Many foundation industries’ processes are controlled manually. In response to different fuels and conditions, variables – such as furnace temperature or the amount of air in the combustion process – are often determined and set by expert human operators.

However, this can lead to wide variations in energy use. Research by Dr Daniel Summerbell from the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, found that the difference in fuel consumption between a good day and a bad day in cement manufacturing can be as much as 20%.

The research led to the formation of Carbon Re, a spin-out company specialising in artificial intelligence for materials, and the development of its Delta Zero platform, which utilises machine learning to uncover energy efficiencies in cement manufacture.

Now, with funding from the Transforming Foundation Industries Investor Partner Programme, Carbon Re is exploring the potential for Delta Zero in other Foundation Industries.

“Modern furnaces produce an abundance of data from equipment and sensors. Delta Zero uses that data to model the process, and then uses an AI algorithm to establish the best control strategy in any given situation. This helps maximise production and minimise fuel costs and carbon emissions,” explains Dr Summerbell, Co-Founder and Chief Solutions Officer of Carbon Re.

“Our technology is already available to the cement industry, where we have demonstrated potential efficiencies that could cut fuel consumption by about 10% and carbon emissions from that fuel by 20%. We wanted to see if and how it could be applied to other foundation industries.”

The project team worked with research and technology hubs Glass Futures and the Materials Processing Institute to establish the feasibility of applying Delta Zero to the glass and steel industries. “We established a data audit process for the steel industry, but it was more challenging from a data collection perspective. However, for the glass industry, we were able to build a prototype product that modelled a simplified glass furnace,”. says Dr Summerbell. “The project provided a greater understanding of the data required to model each process and whether an industry would benefit from our technology.”

While the technology offers immediate cost and efficiency benefits for foundation industries, its flexibility means its value will continue to grow, say Dr Summerbell. “As we transition to a low-carbon economy, the technology will help industries stay ahead of the curve. In the long term, if they need to integrate carbon capture and storage or waste heat recovery into their plants, they will be able to adapt more quickly and cost efficiently than they would with existing manual processes.”

The potential scale of efficiencies means the technology could play an important role in helping the foundation industries – and the UK – meet net zero targets. “The cement industry is 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If we can reduce emissions by 10%, that’s roughly the equivalent of taking the UK off the map in terms of greenhouse gas emissions,” says Dr Summerbell.

“It’s often missing from public discourse, but any emissions cuts that can be made imminently are disproportionately valuable – a cut today would require a reduction four times greater if it were made in 2050. The very exciting aspect of this technology is that it can be applied at scale to multiple industries and can be deployed almost immediately.”