Energy, economic, and environmental impacts of advanced technology in the process industries

The spreadsheet-based economic model shown here has been successfully used to analyze the impacts of technology used in a variety of industrial areas. It generates projections on energy, waste, and production cost savings that can be used to gauge the potential benefits that may result from technology adoption. The model is highly flexible, and can be used to incorporate unique benefits that fall outside the realm of energy savings. Although only aggregated results are shown here to protect developer confidentially, it is obvious that when the same information is viewed on the project level it can be invaluable to the research program manager. With the data provided by the model the value of a project can be assessed in terms of the federal investment as well as national impacts. This is a distinct advantage for government research managers who much allocate very scarce federal research funds among a multitude of potentially important research projects