Using Digital Models to Decarbonize a Production Site: A Case Study of Connecting the Building Model, Production Model and Energy Model

Rapid growth of digital technology has facilitated industry progress, while industrial CO₂ emissions are a major issue to be confronted. Digital Twins can play a major role but so far, they have no common norms, standards, or models yet. On top of this, the majority in literature uses the term Digital Twin, but only a few sources are really describing a Digital Twin, whereby it describes a bidirectional data transfer between the real model and the software model. Until now, Digital Twins focus on a single area of interest and do not consider the broader challenge of CO₂ emissions. This study gives an example how to predict CO₂ emissions for the operation of a production site by merging three Digital Models (Building, Production, and Energy Model). This approach demonstrates how CO₂ emissions can be reduced during operation by selecting an appropriate production scenario and a specific energy source mix in the planning phase. The core task is to enable energy demand reduction by simulating different production scenarios and to identify the best energy source mix with the resulting CO₂ emissions visible. The case study shows that by merging the three Digital Models, it is possible to create an overview of the expected CO₂ emissions which can be used as a basis for further developments for Digital Twins. However, the case study has shown that only manual data exchange between the models was possible. Further developments enabling a common data exchange and the connection of the interdisciplinary digital models through a shared language are urgently needed to speed up developments for Digital Twins and shape an interdisciplinary industry approach.