Brunel University in the UK will partner with Spanish car maker SEAT in the 'EuroEnergest' project which is planning to develop a new artificial intelligence-driven energy management system for the automotive industry.
Four other European partners will also join the initiative to work in specific areas of the automotive industry such as HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) during next three years to reduce energy consumption by 10% following testing at SEAT's facilities in Barcelona.
Brunel University's Advanced Manufacturing and Enterprise Engineering group Head Professor Kai Cheng said that the automotive industry is one of the main industrial consumers of energy.
"With a significant 1.2% of the total European industrial energy consumption, an increase in energy efficiency by the automotive industry during the manufacturing process would result in an important advance in energy saving and CO2 emissions limitation," Cheng said.
Funded by the European Framework 7 programme, the energy management systems are expected to support existing industrial loads and available power sources to optimise the demanded power costs, as well as enhance local and low-carbon energy sources.
The project will include a detailed analysis of CO2 emissions and the process needed for measuring and modelling the manufacturing carbon footprint.
The final system will be validated at SEAT's manufacturing site to guarantee its effectiveness following which it can be applied across the Audi-Volkswagen group and, in the longer term, to other car manufacturers in Europe and worldwide.
Spanish company Enertika, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Universitat Politechnica de Catalunya, and Comfort Consulting are the other members involved with the project.
