ENERGY CONSERVATION ANALYSIS IN THE FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR: A SIMULATION APPROACH.

The need to provide the capability of analyzing energy use in the energy intensive food processing sector and to evaluate specific energy conserving technologies has provided part of the motivation for the development of ALINET (Alimentary Industry Network), a dynamic network model of the food processing and distribution sector. The basic structure of the model is that of a material flow network where nodes represent the specific state of the material at that stage and links represent the processes that the material is undergoing. Model structure and use are illustrated by the processing and distribution system of wheat, which has already been implemented.