Simulations reduce CO2 emissions by 98 %
Using our simulation systems for training purposes does not only help to save original equipment, reduce accident risks and save money. This training method also “quite incidentally” reduces lots of CO2 emissions.
We have calculated this, using the example of the simulation for the “Improved Ribbon Bridge” (IRB), which is in use at the German Army:
To build a medium-sized bridge with the original system, four motor boats and four trucks are required, which consume approximately 360 litres of Diesel fuel per hour altogether. If you multiply this value with 2,630 grams of CO2 which are emitted per litre of burned Diesel, it sums up to almost one metric ton of CO2 per system operation hour.
If the bridging engineer team uses the simulation instead, there also is CO2 emitted for the generation of the required electric current. However, the almost 25 kilowatts consumed by the simulation system multiplied with 520 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour which are emitted by average when generating the electricity equals only slightly more than 12 kgs of CO2 emissions per operating hour. This is less than 2 % of the emissions caused by the original system.
If you want to reproduce this calculation example, here are the values our calculation is based on:
| Consumption of the original IRB system | Units | l/h per unit | total l/h | 946.8 kgs of CO2 emissions per h | |
| Motor boat | 4 | 60 | 240 | ||
| Truck | 4 | 30 | 120 | ||
| 360 | |||||
| Consumption of the virtual system (simulation) | Units | kw/h per unit | total kw/h | 12.3 kgs of CO2 emissions per h | |
| PCs | 27 | 0.300 | 8.10 | ||
| LCD Monitors | 20 | 0.100 | 2.00 | ||
| Projectors | 7 | 0.700 | 4.90 | ||
| Network switches | 3 | 0.100 | 0.30 | ||
| Cooling fans | 6 | 0.050 | 0.30 | ||
| Room lighting | 1 | 0.500 | 0.50 | ||
| Air condition | 1 | 7.500 | 7.50 | ||
| 23.60 |
CO2 emissions in kgs: per litre Diesel fuel 2.63 / per kWh electric current 0.52
