TY - JOUR
TI - Increasing the energy efficiency of manufacturing industrial systems using criticality assessment methods
AU - Branković Dejan
AU - Milovanović Zdravko N
AU - Knežević Darko M
AU - Škundrić Jovan B
AU - Laloš Saša S
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2026
VL - 30
IS - 2
SP - 1601
EP - 1612
PT - Article
AB - Production industrial systems are large consumers of energy, which within their technical systems and technological processes hide numerous opportunities for improvement. Process optimization aims to reduce production and maintenance costs. The most significant positive financial effects arise from the increase in energy efficiency and sustainability of the system, because today we are faced with the high price, unavailability and high demand of energy sources. The paper presents a case study of the application of the developed algorithm for assessing the criticality of a part of an industrial plant for the production of hygienic paper, which significantly facilitated the analysis, definition and selection of plant elements with the greatest potential for possible improvements. The theoretical bases of possible savings in energy consumption are related to the heat balance and calculation of the dryer, which give a realistic estimate of the reduction of specific steam consumption for drying hygienic paper in relation to the expected increase in the dryness of the paper web during the dewatering process. The experimental results of the research refer to the comparison of energy consumption results, maintenance costs and the quality of the final product before and after the implementation of the modification of a part of the technical system. The percentage reduction in specific steam consumption obtained by comparing data and records of energy consumption in the boiler plant corresponds to an increase in the degree of dryness of the paper web sample after the dewatering process, which justifies the value of the investment. 
DO - 10.2298/TSCI250707149B
ER -