Development of an Industrial Energy Audit and a Multi-Criteria Framework for Energy Performance Assessment and Intervention Prioritization for Food Industry

The industrial energy transition requires robust, data-driven frameworks to balance thermodynamic efficiency, environmental impact, and economic feasibility. This thesis presents a comprehensive energy audit conducted in a Food & Beverage manufacturing facility specializing in confectionery and chocolate production. Following UNI CEI EN 16247 guidelines and ISO 50001 principles, the plant's thermal and electrical energy flows were mathematically modeled to establish a rigorous energy baseline. To overcome the limitations of traditional, purely economic investment evaluations, an innovative multicriteria decision-making framework was developed. First, the Food Industry Energy Transition Index (FIETI) was formulated to assess the facility's energy maturity, utilizing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to weight five key performance indicators aligned with corporate strategy. Subsequently, a set of proposed energy efficiency interventions was evaluated and prioritized using the PROMETHEE II outranking method. By applying the Usual Criterion (Type I) across four core parameters—Primary Energy Savings, Avoided CO2eq, CAPEX, and Net Present Value—the algorithm generated an objective, rank-reversal-proof hierarchy of interventions. The resulting methodology provides plant management with a highly reliable tool that seamlessly integrates applied physics with strategic corporate planning, optimizing the path toward deep decarbonization in the confectionery sector.