The awareness of Environment Management is getting more and more significant, especially for companies or factories that implement the ISO14000.
This means what the organization does to:
a) minimize harmful effects on the environment caused by its activities, and to
b) achieve continual improvement of its environmental performance.
With the latest development, the effective energy management is a priority focus because of the significant potential to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide.
The excessive energy used for cleanroom air and HVAC is one of the identified cleanroom environment issue.
Based on one case study presented by the contamination specialist, The ISO Class 6 cleanroom with 230 square meters is able to reduce the enegey usage by 20% after the below actions were taken. The study show that the major energy consumption are from the Fan Filter Unit (53%), Chillers (23%), Lighting (18%) & Boilers (6%).
a) Reduce the air speed at the FFU from 0.5 to 0.4 m/s –> 12% overall reduction
b) Light intensity down to 720 lux –> 5% overall reduction
c) Make up air reduction by 2% and 32% boiler reduction –> 2% overall reduction
d) Leak sealing at ceiling, door and floor –> 1% overall reduction
Beside the above, the further energy reduction could be done in the cleanroom during the non production day. This include partial FFU shut down. Anyway, a detail evaluation and study should be carry out to ensure the energy reduction exercise would not affect the overall cleanroom performance (e.g. particle count, room pressurization and temperature change). The proper procedure should be in place to ensure the original system to be turn on prior to resume the production, after the non production day.
