Accelerate Sustainable Industrial Waste Management with Digitalization
Unlock the true value of industrial waste through digitalization for cost-saving opportunities and profitable revenue streams.
In the race towards circularity, overlooking industrial waste management comes at a price.
The actual cost of waste is not simply the cost of discarded materials. Waste encompasses the inefficient use of materials, energy and water, as well as suboptimal waste disposal and treatment.
However, circular economy strategies are changing the game in the world of manufacturing. Manufacturers can eliminate at least 45% of global emissions by rethinking how industries manufacture, distribute and use products.
By leveraging digital technology that's supported by the virtual twin, manufacturers can better drive sustainable waste management and these circular economy principles:
- Eliminate waste and pollution in existing practices
- Keep products and materials in use
- Regenerate natural systems and avoid non-renewable resources
Optimize Industrial Waste Management for Profitable Revenue Streams
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Three Keystones of Optimized Industrial Waste Management
Digitalization is transforming waste management programs by enabling industries to be agile, cost-efficient and future-proof. To effectively optimize all types of waste, manufacturers must rethink their approach guided by the following keystones:
1. Design out waste and keep materials in use
If the manufacturing industry were to align with circular principles, it could save up to US$630 billion a year on raw materials in the EU alone. To remain competitive, manufacturers need to recycle and recover materials from solid waste and optimize raw material usage during the design phase. By using materials efficiently, manufacturers get to keep them longer in the economy.
Recognize and master blind spots
Instead of working in silos, manufacturers should unite people and information in an integrated digital environment for end-to-end visibility of their value network. When all information is connected, manufacturers gain the insights needed to reuse scrap in other parts of their operations.
Collaborate and simulate
When you start by defining the right components in your products, you are already at a huge advantage to cut down industrial waste. Through modeling and simulation, you can understand the chemistry of molecules and optimize components for high product performance and low waste.
Through simulation, manufacturers can collaboratively outline new products and processes in a virtual universe without the need for physical prototypes that consume large amounts of natural resources. Armed with virtual capabilities, manufacturers can:
- Assess and extend a product's lifecycle during development
- Quickly understand the product's material composition
- Identify alternative materials that can break down more efficiently
- Determine how much of the product can be reused or recycled
- Validate new designs before creating a physical prototype or pilot batch
- Minimize physical testing and waste
2. Close the loop in energy consumption
At least 54% of global energy is used in manufacturing industries. As a result, forward-thinking manufacturers are picking up the pace in using digitalization to enable a closed-loop production system and drive more efficient waste-to-energy processes.
Through digitalization, manufacturers can improve energy recovery in the following areas:
Integrated operations
Manufacturers will gain visibility to determine how the energy generated by one process can be used in another, ensuring that waste energy can be converted into resource materials.
Seamless collaboration
Connecting everyone from the manufacturer's value network in an integrated digital environment will facilitate seamless collaboration in energy recovery.
Lifecycle assessment
Equipped with the ability to measure a product's environmental impact in every step of its lifecycle, manufacturers can better validate and implement circular economy principles.
Scenario planning
With the ability to evaluate multiple scenarios' outcomes, manufacturers can make better-informed decisions for reduced energy consumption.
3. Measure and track waste water footprint
Water is a scarce resource. On average, almost 40% of all water is consumed by the industrial sector. A cup of coffee may account for only a few ounces of water. But add in the usage for growing the beans, packaging and shipping, and the amount rises to 140 liters.
Digitalization is the key to real-world water conservation, enabling manufacturers to use the virtual twin to explore more efficient water use. The virtual twin empowers manufacturers to run scenarios and understand every action's consequences before executing a decision in their actual operations.
With the power of the virtual twin, manufacturers can:
Model and trace water usage in great detail
Identify production-related risks earlier
Ensure a higher manufacturing yield
Gain Virtual Powers to Elevate Real-World Waste Management
The right technologies for optimized, integrated waste management are available on the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform — allowing all teams to collaborate in real-time and contribute towards a circular economy.
With the cloud-based platform's advanced capabilities, manufacturers can implement circular strategies to gain value from their industrial waste. The platform empowers manufacturers to accelerate their transition towards a circular economy, ultimately driving more customer-centric, agile and sustainable businesses.
We are working to offer our customers the ability to understand at every step of their innovation process, from designing a new product to modeling its manufacturing and dismantling, what their impact is on the environment.
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