Equipment suppliers integration to the redesign for emissions reuse in industrial processes

It is a fact that industrial equipment is the main consumer of natural resources, impacting considerably on companies' sustainability. In this context, the sustainable redesign of production processes is one of the main companies' challenges seeking to gain competitive advantage in an increasing sustainable environment. This research paper proposes a methodology for industrial application for the redesign of production processes in collaboration with equipment suppliers through resource efficiency based on Circular Economy (CE) closing loops. The redesign for emissions reuse (R4ER) methodology is a practical guidance on how manufacturing companies could address the challenges posed by the large amount of resources consumed during the operational stage of equipment's life cycle involved in production processes. The main results of this implementation are based on a real case study in a Catalan manufacturing company showing a reduction of 38% of water and 26% of electricity during the operational stage of a sterilization process in a year.