|
A Vision of the Future for U.S. Core Industries
The Industries of the Future program envisions core industry sectors that are environmentally benign, highly productive, energy efficient, technologically savvy, and globally competitive. Through this program, run by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Industrial Technologies, industry, government, and academic partners develop a vision for energy-intensive industrial sectors and outline roadmaps to target the gaps in existing practice and technology that need to be spanned to make the vision real. The result is a federally co-funded, industry-driven research and development program.
Overview of Industries of the Future
The Industries of the Future Specific Program, begun in 1994, is directed towards pre-competitive research with nine of the most energy intensive industrial sectors, largely commodities-based industries—agriculture, aluminum, chemicals, forest products, glass, metal casting, mining, petroleum refining, and steel. These industries account for more than 75 percent of energy use in the industry sector and have up to four times the energy-intensity of most other manufacturing industries.
System efficiency improvements can be quite large in this sector—for instance, any avoidance of heating, cooling, and reheating can save substantial amounts of energy independent of the efficiency of the heating and cooling equipment. On a slightly larger scale, additional materials recycling, transforming waste products into profitable products, and other industry-wide changes also can reduce energy use in commodities industries.
The Industries of the Future Specific strategy is to develop and implement vision and technology roadmaps to pursue medium- and long-term technology improvement opportunities. Industry leaders collaboratively define a vision, develop industry-wide long-term goals, and create technology roadmaps that articulate specific technology and research strategies to achieve the vision.
More information at: http://www.oit.doe.gov/industries.shtml
Importance of IOF Programs to North Carolina
The industrial base in North Carolina is very diverse, made up of many different kinds of manufacturing facilities. The IOF-NC program currently includes four industries that make a substantial contribution to the State’s economy: mining, forest products, chemicals, and agriculture. Combined, these industries represent more than $70 billion per year in revenue and employ approximately one third of the State’s workforce.
The targeted IOF industries face financial and technological problems that cannot be resolved by the resources available to the individual companies. The State has already targeted these industries for improvement through the activities of the State Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, which has pledged support of the IOF Program and will participate in its activities.
The mission of IOF-NC is to be a catalyst for projects, partnerships, and programs that increase energy efficiency, reduce and utilize waste materials, and generally improve industrial productivity and competitiveness in the State of North Carolina.
IOF Programs in North Carolina:
- Agriculture
- Forest Products
- Mining
- Chemicals
- Glass
IOF North Carolina Partners
| 
