The products of traditional manufacturing industry are widely used in various industries, which produce a lot of economic and social value, at the same time, the environmental pollution can not be ignored. According to the International Energy Outlook, industrial energy consumption accounts for more than 80% of the total energy consumption of the world’s manufacturing industry by 2020. With the progress of industrialization, the proportion of industrial energy is still rising. According to statistics, in 2018, the energy consumption of China’s manufacturing industry accounted for about 55.65% of the total energy consumption, and the huge energy consumption made it a major contributor to greenhouse gases. The growth of energy consumption [3] also continued to promote the increase of carbon emissions. According to the Washington Post of the United States, global carbon emissions hit a new high in 2018, so it is urgent to reduce global carbon emissions. The traditional manufacturing industry has the characteristics of high energy consumption and low efficiency. Improving the energy and resource utilization rate of the manufacturing process is an effective means to achieve energy saving and emission reduction, which plays an important role in improving the environment and complying with the trend of global low-carbon development. Related studies show that the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth should be to reduce emissions by limiting economic growth. Carbon constraints can also encourage capital-constrained manufacturers to produce more remanufactured products to maximize profits. In addition, the decline in energy intensity can effectively curb the growth of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, it is necessary to limit the carbon emissions generated by production behavior, so as to obtain good benefits.
The foundry industry is an energy-intensive industry, and the energy consumption of the casting process accounts for a large proportion in the manufacturing industry.
China’s casting output ranks first in the world all the year round, reaching 47.2 million tons in 2016 alone, accounting for about 45% of the global casting output. However, the level of foundry production is still at a disadvantage compared with developed countries. Not only the energy consumption accounts for 25-30% of the total energy consumption of the machinery industry, which is twice that of the foundry developed countries, but also the net weight of castings caused by the backward process level is 10% higher than that of foreign countries. 20%, the processing allowance is 1-3 times larger. In addition, unreasonable process plan design and discrete redundant casting processes and other factors also make it difficult to guarantee the quality of castings, reducing the yield of castings and only increasing the energy consumption of casting production. At present, although the relevant foundry enterprises in China have taken certain environmental protection measures to reduce the environmental pollution in the casting process, the backward production line and low automation mode of production still lead to high energy consumption and low energy efficiency. At the same time, various processes in the casting process will also produce varying degrees of pollution. For example, the use of chemical binders will produce carbon dioxide, resin sand materials will release harmful gases into the atmosphere when heated, and landfills of waste sand will cause soil and groundwater pollution and lead to heavy metals exceeding the standard level. To sum up, there is still much room for improvement in energy saving and emission reduction in China’s foundry industry.
The Paris Climate Agreement, signed by 197 countries in November 2016, aims to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of the pre-industrial period by the end of the century. All countries are striving to achieve their own energy conservation and emission reduction targets. IPCC proposes a fundamental view of climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions, including some indicators that can be calculated and quantified: per capita production (GDP/Pop), energy intensity (E/GDP), carbon intensity (CO2/ E), and so on. These indicators are still widely used. The United States established the Clean Energy Security Act, Britain established the Climate change Act, the European Union issued the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework, the Paris Agreement (COP21) further clarified the concept of global climate governance for low-carbon and green development, and Japan promulgated the Climate change adaptation Act. In 2025, China’s State Council issued made in China 2015, which requires China’s manufacturing industry to follow the path of sustainable development with low energy consumption and low emissions. By 2025, the carbon intensity of Chinese manufacturing will be 40 per cent lower than it was in 2015. Policy is one of the main driving forces of low-carbon manufacturing, and enterprises with low degree of modernization will bear heavier policy pressure to respond to the call of the “three-year Action Plan to win the Blue Sky” issued by the State Council in 2018. Energy conservation and emission reduction is not only a policy need but also the general trend of industrial development. The new eco-chemical industry model of low-carbon, green and sustainable development is also the only way for the manufacturing industry to transform and innovate. This will be a huge challenge.