Energy efficiency improvement potentials through energy benchmarking in pulp and paper industry

Abstract

This study aims to highlight the energy improvement potentials of Pakistan's paper sector that is one of the most energy intensive industries by benchmarking its specific energy consumption (SEC) to produce a similar grade of paper. To address issues such as the lack of indicators for energy efficiency benchmarking in Pakistan's paper industry. Furthermore, energy saving potential was estimated by comparison with paper industries in the United Kingdom and Canada, where energy benchmarks have already been established and data on energy benchmarking is readily available. This study energy consumption data accounts for 75% of the total energy utilized in Pakistan's paper industry and is compared with the energy consumption of the UK and Canada paper sectors where the most up-to-date energy-saving techniques are used. The calculation shows that when compared to the paper industries in the UK and Canada, Pakistan's paper industry utilizes an additional 1.3 MWh of energy for every tonne of paper produced. With a total yearly paper production of 314,549 metric tonnes, this equates to an additional 408,913 MWh of overall annual energy use. It is concluded that if the proposed energy benchmark in this study is applied within the country's mill comparison, savings of 16.4% of overall energy consumption in the Pakistan paper sector can be achieved. It is also shown that the implementation of the best available techniques used in the UK and Canada in Pakistan's paper sector could result in a potential energy saving of 43% of the total energy consumed by this sector.

Keywords

• Clean environment
• Energy benchmarking
• Sustainability
• Energy efficiency
• Pakistan's paper mills
• Biomass boilers