The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office's (IEDO) manufacturing, materials, and lifecycle energy tools use a cross-sector and prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) approach that anticipates future benefits and impacts. These tools consider at all life cycle phases (material, manufacturing, freight and distribution, use phase, and end of life) as well as evaluate the energy impacts of the U.S. supply chain.
The EEIO-IDA tool, developed by Energetics for DOE as an Excel-based tool, aids users in conducting rapid “what-if” analysis for hypothetical industrial decarbonization scenarios at the scale of the overall U.S. economy. EEIO-IDA can be used to explore how greenhouse gas emissions accrue in industrial supply chains, including calculation and visualization of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions for 25 industrial subsectors. User-adjustable model parameters in EEIO-IDA include assumptions for the U.S. electric grid mix; industry-specific fuel mix and energy requirements; non-energy-related greenhouse gas emissions releases; carbon capture; and shifts in product demand.
Developed by Energetics for DOE aids users in estimating potential energy, carbon, and cost impacts of a new technology in a streamlined spreadsheet tool that integrates LCA and TEA methods. TECHTEST requests user input data about various material and energy flows associated with the new technology and industry standard technologies. The tool references process and emissions data tables to help quantify and standardize a comparison of the new technology and benchmark technology in the form of charts and tables. DOE also offers short tutorial videos and other resources on the techniques for cost and environmental assessment used in TECHTEST.
Access the Materials Flows through Industry (MFI) Tool.
The MFI online tool (currently available in beta), developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, helps identify and analyze opportunities to reduce the energy and carbon intensities of the U.S. industrial sector. Users can perform process comparisons, material substitutions, and grid modifications and can see the effects of implementing potential sector-level energy efficiencies. Key MFI tool outputs are fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from fuel combustion. Fossil fuel consumption is divided into fuel for electricity generation, industrial process fuel, transportation fuel, and fuel used as chemical feedstock.
Access the Life Cycle GreenHouse Gas, Technology and Energy through the Use Phase (LIGHTEnUP) Tool.
The Life Cycle GreenHouse Gas, Technology and Energy through the Use Phase (LIGHTEnUP) tool, developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, helps estimate forecasts of both the manufacturing sector and product life cycle energy consumption implications of manufactured products across the U.S. economy. A user guide is available for this tool.
The tool incorporates publicly available historic and projection datasets to form a business-as-usual projection of U.S. economywide energy use including manufacturing, buildings operations, electricity generation, and transportation. Based on minimal user inputs, the tool projects the energy, carbon dioxide emissions, and energy expenditure (i.e., economic spending to purchase energy) and calculates the net difference relative to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis as an output graph and table. The tool is not an optimization or equilibrium model and therefore does not select technologies or deployment scenarios automatically. Instead, projections can reflect detailed engineering calculations, future targets and goals, or creative insights, and inputs can be calculated internally using calculation steps, or externally and copied into the tool.
Because forecasts are inherently uncertain, the user can create an unlimited number of scenario alternatives to the business-as-usual projection as sensitivity cases highlighting the most dominant variables with the greatest effect on net changes to the business-as-usual projection. The tool allows the user to create multiple scenarios that can reflect a range of possible future outcomes. However, reasonable scenarios require careful attention to assumptions and details about the future. The tool provides a transparent and uniform system of comparing manufacturing and use phase impacts of technologies and provides documentation to communicate results.
Access the Plant Water Profiler (PWP) Tool - Excel, Beta Version (PWPEx v0.1).
The PWP Tool (currently available in beta) was developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory to help manufacturing facilities:
- Understand the procurement, use, and disposal of water in their plants.
- Understand the “true cost” of water, i.e., the costs associated with water procurement, treatment, and consumption and wastewater disposal.
- Identify opportunities for reducing water use and achieve associated cost savings.
The PWP Tool conducts water balance to break down the total plant water intake, wastewater disposal, and true cost of water by individual water-using systems in the facility. Thus, it helps management identify systems that contribute most towards source water intake versus true cost and enables efforts to prioritize water efficiency measures. Results can also be used to establish a baseline and track water use during subsequent years.
Access the Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) Energy Estimator Tool.
The CFRP Energy Estimator, developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, allows users such as composite researchers and manufacturers to quickly estimate the embodied energy use of composite manufacturing processes and compare to other conventional processes.
Access the Additive Manufacturing (AM) Energy Impacts Assessment Tool.
AM processes enable the manufacture of optimized parts with minimal material requirements, and the products manufactured using the AM processes have the potential to reduce energy over a product’s entire lifespan. The Additive Manufacturing Energy Impacts Assessment tool, developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, assesses the lifecycle energy of an additively manufactured product by considering energy used in the material, manufacture, freight and distribution, use, and the disposal phases. The intended users of the AM Energy Impacts Assessment Tool are researchers, funding agencies, and the technical staff working in AM industry. The accompanying guidebook describes in detail a methodology behind calculating the lifecycle energy consumption and savings for additively manufactured products.
Visit our Technical Partnerships page to learn about partner programs, software tools, training, technical publications, and other guidance to help with energy analysis of plant systems. For more sector-specific resources, see our Industries and Technologies page.