During his tenure as an educator at MU, Bin Wu has worked to teach students about energy efficiency through industrial engineering.
As director of the MU’s Industrial Assessment Center, Wu and his team of engineers have developed an audit system that can save companies an average of $80,000 a year in energy costs and savings.
“My field of expertise is in industrial systems design and improvement,” he said. “I’ve always strongly believed that when we talk about industrial system efficiency, we must take energy efficiency into consideration.”
The Industrial Assessment Center operates by offering free consultations for area businesses hoping to lower their carbon footprint and cut costs as a company. The consultations allow the businesses to learn about energy awareness while also providing students the opportunity to train within a professional environment.
Sanjeev Khanna serves as both a professor within the department of mechanical and aerospace research as well as the assistant director of Industrial Assessment Center.
“Whenever we go on industrial visits, we try to take as many students as possible with us,” Khanna said. “They’re directly involved from the start. It’s a hands-on training process.”
After a company requests a free consultation, students and professors work together to examine each company’s utility bills and tour its work site. Industrial Assessment Center then prepares a report for each company with anywhere from 10 to 20 recommendations on how to cut down on energy use, according to an MU news release. Areas such as lighting, motors and air systems are commonly cited by the program as consuming an unnecessary amount of energy for companies.
“That’s a full $80,000 savings,” Khanna said. “That is very direct profit (for the companies) or else they would have to sell goods worth nearly half a million dollars to earn such a profit. If you look at the longer time span, you’ll be gaining a lot of profit.”
Students typically spend between one to two years working for the program. According to the program’s website, six graduate students are employed in addition to four MU faculty members.
Due to its success in the energy conservation field, Industrial Assessment Center was awarded a five-year, $1.5 million grant by the United States Department of Energy. MU was one of 24 schools in the nation to receive the grant, with fellow Big 12 schools Oklahoma State and Iowa State receiving federal funding as well.
“I am very glad that after years of hard work we have obviously built up a strong base here at MU,” Wu said. “We are now leading the effort to educate and train the next generation of energy-savvy engineers and professionals, and this is a unique opportunity for our MU students.”
According to the Industrial Assessment Center’s website, the goal of the program is to educate students while also making sure larger energy consumers are informed about their usage and understand its impact.
“These centers across the country have been in existence for 30 years,” Khanna said. “There are a lot of indirect benefits. It might cost (companies) five to ten thousand for a professional audit, which is available free of charge under the IAC program. This way, they are able to reduce their energy profile and then there’s less demand for fuels, costs are lowered and there is less of an impact on the environment.”
Wu said around 20 students work as student engineers for the Industrial Assessment Center with a satellite center located at Southeast Missouri State University.
“I think the most important thing is that our students are benefiting from this activity,” Wu said.