Simulation-based approach to modeling the carbon emissions dynamic characteristics of manufacturing system considering disturbances

There is increasing evidence that more and more companies throughout the world are seeking measures to reduce their production carbon emissions and product carbon footprint. Simulation tools can be used to characterize the carbon emission dynamics of manufacturing system to help companies clearly developing the potential reduction strategies of production carbon emissions. On the basis of the carbon emissions dynamics described by general state equations of manufacturing system as a hybrid system, a simulation approach based on hybrid Petri-nets (HPN) is proposed to display the carbon emission dynamics. In order to estimate the total carbon emissions of the whole process chain, the carbon emissions of production system are represented as segments of specific carbon emissions for each operation state of the individual production equipments in the approach. Furthermore, two function indicators deriving from general state equations, carbon emission rate and carbon efficiency, are defined to describe the dynamic characteristics. Production disturbance as one of the critical factors influencing the carbon emission performance of production system is also considered in this paper for demonstrating their impacts on the carbon emission dynamic characteristics. Finally, an experimental study is presented to illustrate validation of the proposed approach and shows its positional significance for carbon emission reduction. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.