a University, these percentages are 53%, 38%, 30%, and 88% respectively. Direct energy, as it is used, refers to energy inputs such as “labor work, fossil, and electricity” defined as directly being responsible for the production of wheat. This category has a mix of primary and secondary fuels that are either used in their basic forms or are a product of external generation. On the other hand, indirect energy, such as “fertilizers, manures, and pesticides” refer to components with significant embodied energy that are heavily involved in wheat production. Almost all of these are secondary energies and are not found in nature in usable forms. Renewable and nonrenewable energy, as the names suggest, refer to whether the energy source is replenishable at the used rate, where examples of renewables are human labor or manure, while energy sources such as diesel, chemicals, and machinery are considered nonrenewable (Taghavifar 2014). After this wheat is harvested and transported to a processing facility, the next considerable energy usage is in refining it. In factories, dough production takes place in several steps which each involve certain energies. First, the wheat is milled, between heavy rollers, usually driven by electric motors. Thus, the main energy type present is electrical, which is then converted to mechanical through the motor. The resulting product is flour, which is combined with the other ingredients in large kneading machines which likewise mainly use electricity (Bushuk 2012). This breakdown applies to both instant and conventional ramen due to their compositions being virtually identical, and as such embodied energy totals do not differ until a later stage.
Beyond the production of the raw dough, different manufacturing processes differentiate the embodied energy in instant and conventional ramen. In producing conventional ramen, factories are optimized to make straight, uncooked noodles quickly, intended to be cooked at a later time. Comparatively, the purpose of instant ramen’s curved shape is to ensure longer noodles in the same volume while imparting a better texture when cooked (Goulding 2016). The machines responsible for cutting or pressing dough into noodle form once again primarily take electrical energy as their inputs, (with minor embodied energies in the form of lubrication oils or replacement parts), but their efficiencies differ due to the geometries of their product. Overall, machines producing straight noodles can do so at a much higher speed, increasing efficiency per electrical energy input (James, 2006). This is the first instance where instant ramen is observed as to having a larger embodied energy due to less efficient processes, with more differences further in production. One key difference is that instant noodles are precooked while conventional ramen comes uncooked, providing embodied energy. Ramen noodles are most commonly steam cooked, a process that involves thermal and electric energy. By heating water until boiling, steam is forced onto hanging noodles which cooks them and aids in gelatinizing the starches present. (Rywotycki, 2003) This step is absent in the production of uncooked noodles, and as such any energy present, electrical or thermal, results in the larger embodied energy present in instant ramen. Next, both noodles need to be dried in preparation for packaging, and despite the procedure being similar, energy differences still occur. This results from the remaining water content in the two forms of noodles, with the moisture in uncooked noodles being around 30%, and in cooked, 50% (Hakoda, 2006). Because thermal energy in the form of hot air is used to dry both products, the instant noodles with their larger water content yet again requires more energy input to complete the process, resulting in another embodied energy term. At this point, differences in packaging in transport were deemed to be negligible, leaving only the customer use cases to be different.
Previously, instant ramen was shown to have significantly larger embodied energy which is responsible for consum