Energy efficiency and industry
Energy use in industry is extremely diverse. There exist a multitude of manufacturing plants, mining establishments, and construction sites of numerous sizes, configurations and levels of technological sophistication, each using energy for a wide variety of purposes. This great diversity makes the implementation of effective energy efficiency very challenging.
Visit also our section >> Cleaner Production.
Iron and steel, chemicals and petrochemicals, cement and ceramics and glass, pulp and paper, food and tobacco - are the five subsectors accounting for about two-thirds of total industrial energy use.
Industry uses energy for both process and non-process functions. In general, the process functions dominate energy use:
- Process functions: steam production, machine drive, process heating and cooling, electro-chemical transformations.
- Non-process functions: lighting, heating and cooling and ventilation, communications and computation.
For some energy intensive companies in Europe, energy management goes without saying, at least since the petrol crisis of the 70ies, whereas in small and medium sized companies this field seems to be of rather little interest. This lecture intended to inform companies about the main objectives of an energy analysis called "Energy Audit" which may serve as a basis for successful energy management. The main steps of an "Energy Audit" are the following:
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Collection and storage of data concerning energy supply and utilization
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Description of the energy situation
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Calculating key energy figures
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Identification of weak spots and saving potential
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Establishing or outsourcing of energy analyses (measurements on machinery and equipment)
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Analysis and planning of energy saving measures
Cleaner production - versus end-of-pipe
Since the 1960’s, mostly, problems with emissions of pollutants from industrial sources to the environment were addressed by the utilisation of end of pipe pollution control technologies. These approaches reduced the direct release of some pollutants to achieve regulatory compliance but did not really solve the problems. Often, the pollutants were only transferred from one sink to the other. Additionally end-of-pipe treatment causes extra costs. Cleaner production (CP) on the contrary is a common sense approach: Instead of treating waste and emissions in end-of-pipe treatment plants, we try to define ways to prevent the production of the pollutants. This approach includes organisational changes, motivation and training for good housekeeping as well as changes in raw materials, process technology, internal and external recycling. The basic idea is a change of the end-of-pipe question: "What shall we do with waste and emissions?" to the cleaner production question: "Where do waste and emissions come from and what can we do to prevent their production at the source?".
CP Management systems
Analysing environmental management systems implemented on the basis of cleaner production (CP) projects demonstrates, that CP supplies management and employees with systematic tools to decrease the environmental impact and at the same time save costs from inefficient use of materials and energy and motivates the organisation as well by creating awareness throughout the enterprise. Such CP management strategies are heading for: Productivity of materials; Energy efficiency; Material flow management; Preventive environmental protection; Sustainable use of natural capital; Service orientation; Legal compliance.
ECOPROFIT, an ECOlogical PROject For Integrated Environmental Technologies, is a programme aiming to economically strengthen industry through pollution prevention, inspired by the wish to contribute to the improved environmental situation of regions all over the world. On the basis of well known environmental problems ECOPROFIT investigates into the production process and all other activities of a firm and studies them from the angle of energy and also material utilization. This approach helps to induce innovation within the companies themselves in order to bring companies and the whole region a step further on the way to a sustained economic development. Following on from this, products, technologies and materials were critically studied in order to reduce the energy consumption and to minimise emissions or waste and to find ways to re-use unavoidable waste. In this sense, ECOPROFIT does represent a profitable tool to establish a holistic concept on cleaner production for regions. Ecological and economic benefits are carried out with the ECOPROFIT method.