Energy saving technologies and productive efficiency in the Chinese iron and steel sector

Energy saving and innovation are currently the subjects of much research. In this study we use the Cobb–Douglas (C–D) type production function to estimate the impact of energy saving technologies and innovation investments on the productive efficiency of Chinese iron and steel enterprises for the period 1990–2000. It is shown from the study results that some productive efficiency growth can be attributed to the adoption and amelioration of energy saving measures (pulverized coal injection technology, PCI; continuous casting technology, CCT) and the increase of technique updating and transformation (TUT) investments associated with energy saving. It is also found that the big enterprises possess a substantial efficiency advantage over small- and medium-sized steel makers. Finally, according to this study, enterprises in some certain locations may gain from the economies of agglomeration and hence perform better than others. The policy implications of this study provide an important rationale for the ongoing centralized merger campaign of the iron and steel industry in China. To accelerate the diffusion of advanced energy efficient technologies and encourage innovation will promote the productive efficiency.     

Substitution between energy and classical factor inputs in the Chinese steel sector

China’s steel sector is the largest in the world and has been a major driving force behind China’s high rate of economic growth. This sector, however, is also a major consumer of energy and, in particular, coal. As a result, the iron and steel sector in China is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. In this article we examine the potential for inter-factor substitution between capital, energy and labor in the Chinese steel sector and find that capital and energy and energy and labor are substitutes. This result suggests that removal of price ceilings on energy would tend to reduce energy use and increase capital intensiveness. While the potential for substitution between energy and labor is less than that between energy and capital, the elasticity of substitution between energy and labor is high compared with previous findings for other countries. This fact suggests that there may be potential for substituting labor for energy, given China’s abundance of labor.     

Current situation of energy consumption and measures taken for energy saving in the iron and steel industry in China

A survey of the key issues associated with the development in the Chinese iron and steel industry and current situations of energy consumption are described in this paper. The apparent production of crude steel in China expanded to 418.78 million tonnes in 2006, which was about 34% share of the world steel production. The iron and steel industry in China is still one of the major high energy consumption and high pollution industries, which accounts for the consumption of about 15.2% of the national total energy, and generation of 14% of the national total wastewater and waste gas and 6% of the total solid waste materials. The average energy consumption per unit of steel is about 20% higher than that of other advanced countries due to its low energy utilization efficiency. However, the energy efficiency of the iron and steel industry in China has made significant improvement in the past few years and significant energy savings will be achieved in the future by optimizing end-use energy utilization. Finally, some measures for the industry in terms of the economic policy of China's 11th five-year plan are also presented.     

The case study of furnace use and energy conservation in iron and steel industry

This work was performed on-site energy audits of 118 firms in the Taiwanese iron and steel industry during 2000–2008. It was found that the total potential energy savings was estimated about 79,160.8 KL of crude oil equivalent (KLOE). It was identified to generate potential electricity savings of 170,322.8 MWH, fuel oil savings of 22,235.1 kL, steam coal savings of 4922 tons, and natural gas (NG) savings of 10,735 kilo cubic meters. It was represented a total reduction of 217,866.5 tons in carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide absorption capacity of a 5836 ha plantation forest. This study has established a national database presenting information and energy saving methods for energy users and has identified the potential areas for making energy savings to provide a energy conservation reference. It can assist the energy users in performing energy audits and increasing energy utilization efficiency.     

An estimation of the energy and exergy efficiencies for the energy resources consumption in the transportation sector in Malaysia

The purpose of this work is to apply the useful energy and exergy analysis models for different modes of transport in Malaysia and to compare the result with a few countries. In this paper, energy and exergy efficiencies of the various sub-sectors are presented by considering the energy and exergy flows from 1995 to 2003. Respective flow diagrams to find the overall energy and exergy efficiencies of Malaysian transportation sector are also presented. The estimated overall energy efficiency ranges from 22.74% (1999) to 22.98% (1998) with a mean of 22.82±0.06%$22.82\pm 0.06\%$ and that of overall exergy efficiency ranges from 22.44% (2000) to 22.82% (1998) with a mean of 22.55±0.12%$22.55\pm 0.12\%$. The results are compared with respect to present energy and exergy efficiencies in each sub-sector. The transportation sector used about 40% of the total energy consumed in 2002. Therefore, it is important to identify the energy and exergy flows and the pertinent losses. The road sub-sector has appeared to be the most efficient one compared to the air and marine sub-sectors. Also found that the energy and exergy efficiencies of Malaysian transportation sector are lower than that of Turkey but higher than Norway.     

Linking energy efficiency and innovation practices: Empirical evidence from the foundry sector

The Europe 2020 strategy currently promotes energy efficiency and innovation through disconnected targets focusing on either energy or R&D. Similar policies indicate that in practice, these two concepts are usually perceived as mutually exclusive. Furthermore, evidence in the literature regarding the relationship between R&D and energy efficiency is still highly limited. This exploratory study aims to address this gap by investigating the link between innovation practices and energy efficiency through a multiple case study of 30 foundries in Northern Italy. We analysed the firms' innovativeness, measured by internal R&D and Open Innovation practices (inbound and outbound), and energy efficiency, measured by specific energy consumption, level of adoption of energy-efficient technologies and barriers to energy efficiency. The results seem to show that those foundries complementing internal R&D with inbound practices have a higher level of energy efficiency, a higher level of adoption of available technologies, and a lower perception of barriers to efficiency improvements. This finding suggests that diversifying innovation practices could lead to better performance with respect to all three indicators of energy efficiency analysed. This study contributes to understanding how more innovative firms can be more energy efficient, providing interesting highlights for managers and policymakers.     

Evaluation of the energy efficiency evolution in the European road freight transport sector

In this paper, we evaluate energy efficiency in the European freight transport sector over three decades, according to a variety of indicators, methodologies and databases. The aim is, on the one hand, of determining major drawbacks in energy efficiency metrics, on the other hand, identifying a possible trend in the sector. The present analysis shows that energy efficiency evaluation is generally subject to misinterpretation and distortion with regard to the methods and data source adopted. Two different indicators (energy intensity and fuel economy) were initially taken into account to select the most suitable for evaluating vehicles’ efficiency. Fuel economy was then adopted and measured according to two different methodologies (top–down and bottom–up). We then considered all the possible sources of distortion (data sources employed, methods of data detection, speed of detection, power enhancement, size factor) with the aim of accomplishing a sound estimation. Fuel economy was eventually divided with the maximum power available (adjusted fuel economy), to account for the power shift of vehicles, that represents a further efficiency improvement.     

Energy efficiency in New Zealand's residential sector: A systemic analysis

This paper examines the complexity arising from the multiple, time varying factors that impact energy efficiency in New Zealand's residential sector. Initial problem structuring involved the analysis of behaviour over time of main variables and incorporated stakeholder analysis using a systems approach. Further, a systems model of the problem situation was developed using a participative group model building process. The analysis of the model revealed a set of feedback loops operating in the system identified as responsible for the complexity of the problem situation relating to energy efficiency. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the main results relating to long-term structural changes suggested by the stakeholders involved in this study to change the behaviour of the system.     

Integrated resource strategic planning: Case study of energy efficiency in the Chinese power sector

In the last quarter of the 20th century, many power companies used the integrated resource planning (IRP) approach in power expansion planning. Today, very few power companies use this approach because of the split between the power generation and distribution activities. It seems that, in some countries, long-term power system expansion planning has become a task of the central government. To help the government in this area, this paper proposes a new approach called the integrated resource strategic planning (IRSP). When combined with a smart grid, this approach can replace the IRP for the government’s power sector expansion. This paper introduces the necessity and possibility of using this new approach, presents a framework on how to use the approach, and justifies the effectiveness of this approach against the traditional power planning approach, with a case study in China. This paper concludes that if China follows the IRSP approach, it may be able to avoid or postpone up to 69 GW of power generation in the period 2009–2015. These measures could help mitigate 201.8 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂), 0.816 million tons of sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and 0.946 million tons of nitrogen oxide (NO_x).     

Allocation of energy resources for power generation in India: Business as usual and energy efficiency

This paper deals with MARKAL allocations for various energy sources, in India, for Business As Usual (BAU) scenario and for the case of exploitation of energy saving potential in various sectors of economy. In the BAU scenario, the electrical energy requirement will raise up to 5000 bKwh units per year or 752 GW of installed capacity with major consumers being in the industry, domestic and service sectors. This demand can be met by a mix of coal, hydro, nuclear and wind technologies. Other reneawbles i.e. solar and biomass will start contributing from the year 2040 onwards. By full exploitation of energy saving potential, the annual electrical energy demand gets reduced to 3061 bKwh (or 458 GW), a reduction of 38.9%.The green house gas emissions reduce correspondingly. In this scenario, market allocations for coal, gas and large hydro become stagnant after the year 2015.     

Decomposition analysis of energy consumption in Chinese transportation sector

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relations between transportation energy consumption and its impacted factors. We first analyze the current status of transportation energy consumption in China. Then, the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) technique is used to find the nature of the factors those influence the changes in transportation energy consumption. We find that: (1) In 2006, the transportation energy consumption increased by 7.63 times against that in 1980. (2) Up to 2006, the oil consumed by transportation accounted for 49.6% of that in the whole country, which almost equaled to the net oil import. (3) In the light of the increasing energy consumption intensity, the energy-utilization effectiveness of transportation sector has been declining gradually. (4) The transportation activity effect is the most important contributor to increase energy consumption in the transportation sector and the energy intensity effect plays the dominant role in decreasing energy consumption.     

Assessment of the energy utilization efficiency in the Turkish transportation sector between 2000 and 2020 using energy and exergy analysis method

Energy and exergy utilization efficiencies in the Turkish transportation sector over the period from 2000 to 2020 are evaluated in this study. A comparison of the overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the Turkish transportation sector with the other countries is also presented. Energy and exergy analyses are performed for four transport modes, namely roadway, railway, airway and seaway, while they are based on the actual data for 2000 and projected data for 2020. Roadway appears to be the most efficient mode when compared with railway, air and seaway. It is projected that about 15% of total energy resources will be used in this sector during 2020. The energy utilization efficiencies for the Turkish transportation sector range from 23.71% in 2000 to 28.75% in 2020, while the exergy utilization efficiencies vary from 23.65% to 28.85% in the same years, respectively. Exergetic improvement potential for this sector is estimated to be 700 PJ in 2020, with an average increase rate of 4.5% annually between 2000 and 2020. Road transport and oil-fuelled combustion engines offer the principal scope for exergetic improvement in the coming decades. It may be concluded that the methodology used in this study is practical and useful for analyzing sectoral energy and exergy utilization to determine how efficiently energy and exergy are used in the sector studied. It is also expected that this study will be helpful in developing highly applicable and productive planning for energy policies.     

End-use energy analysis in the Malaysian industrial sector

The industrial sector is the second largest consumer of energy in Malaysia. In this energy audit, the most important parameters that have been collected are as follows: power rating and operation time of energy-consuming equipments/machineries; fossil fuel and other sources of energy use; production figure; peak and off-peak tariff usage behavior and power factor. These data were then analyzed to investigate the breakdown of end-use equipments/machineries energy use, the peak and off-peak usage behavior, power factor trend and specific energy use. The results of the energy audit showed that the highest electrical energy-using equipment was an electric motor followed by pumps and air compressors. The specific energy use has been estimated and compared with four Indonesian industries and it was found that three Malaysian industries were more efficient than the Indonesian counterpart. The study also found that about 64% electrical energy was used in peak hours by the industries and the average power factor ranged from 0.88 to 0.92. The study also estimated energy and bill savings using highly efficient electrical motors along with the payback period.     

Energy efficiency outlook in China’s urban buildings sector through 2030

This study uses bottom-up modeling framework in order to quantify potential energy savings and emission reduction impacts from the implementation of energy efficiency programs in the building sector in China. Policies considered include (1) accelerated building codes in residential and commercial buildings, (2) increased penetration of district heat metering and controls, (3) district heating efficiency improvement, (4) building energy efficiency labeling programs and (5) retrofits of existing commercial buildings.Among these programs, we found that the implementation of building codes provide by far the largest savings opportunity, leading to an overall 17% reduction in overall space heating and cooling demand relative to the baseline. Second are energy efficiency labels with 6%, followed by reductions of losses associated with district heating representing 4% reduction and finally, retrofits representing only about a 1% savings.     

Potential of best practice technology to improve energy efficiency in the global chemical and petrochemical sector

The chemical and petrochemical sector is by far the largest industrial energy user, accounting for 30% of the industry’s total final energy use. However, due to its complexity its energy efficiency potential is not well understood. This article analyses the energy efficiency potential on a country level if Best Practice Technologies (BPT) were implemented in chemical processes. Two approaches are applied and an improved dataset referring to Europe has been developed for BPT energy use. This methodology has been applied to 66 products in fifteen countries that represent 70% of chemical and petrochemical sector’s energy use worldwide. The results suggest a global energy efficiency potential of 16% for this sector, excluding savings in electricity use and by higher levels of process integration, combined heat and power (CHP) and post-consumer plastic waste treatment. The results are more accurate than previous estimates. The results suggest significant differences between countries, but a cross-check based on two different methods shows that important methodological and data issues remain to be resolved. Further refinement is needed for target setting, monitoring and informing energy and climate negotiation processes. For the short and medium term, a combination of benchmarking and country level analysis is recommended.     

Potential of energy and water efficiency improvement in Abu Dhabi's building sector – Analysis of Estidama pearl rating system

Energy and water infrastructure in Abu Dhabi provides a strong example of the interconnection between energy and water, where the majority of its electricity and water demand is jointly produced from cogeneration plants. The total cost of fuel used for cogeneration plants are heavily depending on the efficiency level of end-use energy and water consumption. Buildings are the major electricity and water consumers with 84.6% and 92.2% respectively from the entire demand. The aim of this study is to analyze the energy and water consumption reduction by implementing Estidama pearl regulations and compare it with Business as Usual -the normal execution of things as they always do-for three sample buildings (villa, multistory residential and office building). For energy assessment, eQUEST software was used to examine the energy performance of the chosen buildings and to evaluate the energy saving potential after applying Estidama requirements. While for water assessment; Estidama and LEED calculation tools were used to do the same. The results of energy simulation and water analysis of the chosen buildings showed a potential of electricity reduction between 31% and 38% and a potential of water reduction between 22% and 36% depending on building type and other parameters. Also, a total monetary savings of 19 Billion AED can be achieved cumulatively over ten years period (2011–2020) after Estidama regulations have been applied. In addition, a reduction of 31.4 Million ton of CO₂eq cumulatively can be achieved.     

An analysis of energy use efficiency of canola production in Turkey

In this study, a survey and economic analysis regarding the use of input have been performed with canola farmers in the Trakya region of Turkey; survey data were obtained from 100 farmers, face-to-face. The average energy use efficiency is 4.68 and this value increases as farm size increases; according to the results of this study, energy is used more efficiently in large farms. The difference between average input and output energy is 67259.36 (MJ ha⁻¹). The specific energies of small, medium, and large farms are 62584.37, 69836.21, and 74405.43 respectively. The ratio of direct and indirect energy sources are 24.69%, and 75.31% respectively, and the benefit–cost ratio of canola production is 2.09.     

End-use energy utilization efficiency of Nigerian residential sector

In this paper, the end-use efficiencies of the different energy carriers and the overall energy efficiency in the Nigerian residential sector (NRS) were estimated using energy and exergy analysis. The energy and exergy flows were considered from 2006 to 2011. The overall energy efficiency ranges from 19.15% in 2006 to 20.19% in 2011 with a mean of (19.96±0.23)% while the overall exergy efficiency ranges from 4.34% in 2006 to 4.40% in 2011 with a mean of (4.31±0.059)%. The energy and exergy efficiency margin was 15.58% with a marginal improvement of 0.07% and 0.02%, respectively when compared with previous results. The contribution of the energy carriers to the total energy and exergy inputs were 1.45% and 1.43% for electricity, 1.95% and 3% for fossil fuel and 96.6% and 95.57% for bio-fuel. The result shows that approximately 65% of the residence use wood and biomass for domestic cooking and heating, and only a fraction of the residence have access to electricity. LPG was found to be the most efficient while kerosene, charcoal, wood and other biomass the least in this order. Electricity utilization exergy efficiency is affected by vapor-compression air conditioning application apart from low potential energy applications. In addition, this paper has suggested alternatives in the end-use application and has demonstrated the relevance of exergy analysis in enhancing sustainable energy policies and management and improved integration techniques.     

Stagnating energy efficiency in the Swedish building sector—Economic and organisational explanations

The development towards higher energy efficiency in the Swedish building sector stagnated in the late 1980s and 1990s. In new buildings the average specific energy use for heating is twice as high as in the best performing buildings 20 years ago. By combining econometric studies and interviews with actors in the building sector we analyse the underlying economic and organisational causes for this development. In the stock of buildings, specific energy use for heating (kWh/m²/yr) has a high correlation with increasing energy prices and price elasticities have not changed markedly over time. This implies that the stagnation to a large extent can be explained by energy price trends. On the contrary, in new buildings the correlation between energy prices and specific energy use is much weaker. One important cause of low sensitivity to price changes is that information about the life cycle cost (LCC) of different investment alternatives is often not available to the involved actors. The most common investment criterion is instead the requirements of the national building energy standard which has developed into a norm rather than a minimum for energy performance. In this paper we also discuss potential improvements in the learning processes within the sector.     

Review of evaluation methodologies and influencing factors for energy efficiency of the iron and steel industry

To promote the sustainable development of the iron and steel industry (ISI), evaluation methods and influencing factors of energy efficiency have been studied in the past decades. A systematic review of these methodologies and influencing factors is presented in this paper. Initially, this paper states the development, current situation, and energy consumption of the world's ISI. Then, the definition of energy efficiency is described. After that, the evaluation methods are categorized as single‐factor methods (including these indicators of thermodynamic, thermos‐physical, thermo‐economic, and economic) and multifactor methods (including parametric and nonparametric methods). Furthermore, typical evaluation methods are highlighted. Thermal analysis method and exergy analysis method are routinely combined to optimize the energy utilization. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) are widely concerned and well developed to gain a better economic benefit. Malmquist index method is often associated with DEA to analyze the technical process and return to scale. Some emerging methods are proposed, for example, the three‐stage DEA method together with DEA and SFA. Finally, the influencing factors of energy efficiency in the ISI are discussed, including industrial structure, technological level, energy consumption structure, price, and so on. It is suggested that optimizing energy structure and improving technology level are effective measures to improve the energy efficiency in the ISI.