Green Engineering - Green Industrial Engineering

Green Industrial Engineering

Industrial engineering of green product designs and green process plans and production processes.

Green Engineering Green Design  - Green  Manufacturing

Manufacturing operations are producing waste such as:
a. Chips from machining and trimmed materials from sheet forming, casting, and molding operations.
b. Slag from foundries and welding operations.
c. Additives in sand used in sand-casting operations.
d. Hazardous waste and toxic materials used in various products.
e. Lubricants and coolants in metalworking and machining operations.
f. Liquids from processes such as heat treating and plating.
g. Solvents from cleaning operations.
h. Smoke and pollutants from furnaces and gases from burning fossil fuels.


The adverse effects of manufacturing activities, damage to  environment and to the Earth’s ecosystem, and, ultimately, their effect on the quality of human life are now widely brought into focus.  Major concerns involve global warming, green house gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide), acid rain, ozone depletion, hazardous wastes, water and air pollution, and contaminant seepage into water sources. One measure of the adverse impact of human activities is called the
carbon footprint, which quantifies the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our daily activities.


Design for the environment (DFE), also called environmentally conscious design and manufacturing,
considers all possible adverse environmental impacts of materials, processes, operations, and products, so that they can all be taken into account at the earliest stages of design and production.

The concept of design for recycling (DFR) also emerged. Recycling may involve one of two basic activities:
Biological cycle: Organic materials degrade naturally, and in the simplest version, they lead to new soil that can sustain life. Thus, product design involves the use of (usually) organic materials. The products function well for their intended life and can then be safely discarded.

Industrial cycle: The materials in the product are recycled and reused continuously. For example, aluminum beverage cans are being recycled and reused after they have served their intended purpose. It has been determined that producing aluminum from scrap, instead of from bauxite ore, reduces production costs by as much as 66% and reduces energy consumption and pollution by more than 90%.


One of the basic principles of design for recycling is the use of materials and product-design features that facilitate biological or industrial recycling. In the U.S. automotive industry, for example, about 75% of automotive parts (mostly metal) are now recycled, and there are continuing plans to recycle the rest as Well, including plas tics, glass, rubber, and foam. About one third of  the 300 million discarded automobile tires are reused in various Ways.

Cradle-to-cradle Production. A term coined in the 1970s and also called CZC, cradle-to-cradle production considers the impact of each stage of a product’s life cycle, from the time natural resources are mined and processed into raw materials, through each stage of manufacturing products, their use and, finally, recycling.


Cradle-to-cradle production especially emphasizes

I. Sustainable and efficient manufacturing activities, using clean technologies.
2. Waste-free production.
3. Using recyclable and nonhazardous materials.
4. Reducing energy consumption.
5. Using renewable energy, such as wind and solar energy.
6. Maintaining ecosystems by minimizing the environmental impact of all activities.
7. Using materials and energy sources that are locally available, so as to reduce
energy use associated with their transport, Which, by and large, has an inherently high carbon footprint.
8. Continuously exploring the reuse and recycling of materials, thus perpetually trying to recirculate materials; also included is investigating the composting of materials Whenever appropriate or necessary, instead of dumping them into landfills.

Guidelines for Green Design and Manufacturing.

I.  Reduce the amount of materials used in products.
1a. Reduce waste of materials, by refining product design,,
1b. Select manufacturing processes that minimize scrap (such as forming instead of machining).
2. Reduce the use of hazardous materials in products and processes.
3. Use  manufacturing technologies that produce environmentally friendly and safe products and by-products. Develop such processes
4. Make improvements in methods of recycling, Waste treatment, and reuse of materials.
5. Minimize energy use, and Whenever possible, encourage the use of renewable sources of energy.
6. Encourage recycling by using materials that are a part of either industrial or biological cycling, but not both in the same product assembly. Ensure proper handling and disposal of all waste in the case of materials used that are not part of an industrial or biological cycle.

Source: Kalpkjian