Enabling industrial energy benchmarking : Process-level energy end-use, key performance indicators, and efficiency potential

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges of our time is global climate change. A key strategy for mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases is the improvement of energy efficiency. Manufacturing industry stands for a large share of global energy end-use but has yet to achieve its full energy efficiency potential. A barrier to untapping this potential is the lack of detailed data on industrial energy end-use at the process level, preventing the development of sound, bottom-up energy key performance indicators (KPIs). This hampers the ability to create a profound strategy for improving industrial energy efficiency because it is not known in which end-use processes the largest energy efficiency potential is to be found. Increasing knowledge about energy end-use at the process level also increases the possibility for energy comparisons, i.e. benchmarking, at the process level. This thesis aimed to investigate how to further enable industrial energy benchmarking at the process level, primarily for the pulp and paper and wood industries. Relevant benchmarking requires that data on energy end-use is collected using a common, harmonized categorization of processes and that joint energy KPIs are applied. Therefore, suggestions for standardized categorizations of end-use processes were investigated for the studied industries. Based on the calculations, and under the assumptions made in this thesis for estimating the energy efficiency potential of end-use processes, diversity was found between industries around which type of processes have the largest efficiency potential. It also emerged that, due to the lack of detailed data about energy end-use and lack of information about energy efficiency measures, processes accounting for a significant share of the energy efficiency potential in the wood industry risk being overlooked. It is not certain that current energy policies are sufficient to reach the full potential identified. The lack of information about energy end-use and energy efficiency measures implies that neither industrial actors nor policy-makers are able to develop thorough energy strategies or roadmaps for improved energy efficiency. While the outcomes of this thesis show that a large share of Swedish pulp and paper mills carry out energy benchmarking to some degree, energy managers emphasized that benchmarking in this particular industry is difficult because it requires a deep understanding of the industry's heterogenous and integrated processes. This thesis proposes a widened perspective on energy benchmarking and its role in industrial energy management; namely, also considering the process of how energy KPIs are implemented within in-house energy management. A process that enhances energy management includes the continuous monitoring, visualization, and revision of KPIs. In this thesis, a method is developed that encourages the bottom-up implementation of energy KPIs in the pulp and paper industry, which further enables industrial energy benchmarking.

Exploring energy management integration into upstream supply chains: a systematic literature review

“…In the last decades, several articles studied the implementation of in-house energy efficiency measures in large industrial companies (Lawrence et al, 2019;Andersson, 2020). However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are a significant proportion of suppliers to large industrial companies, usually do not have the resources to implement EnM in their companies (Jalo et al, 2021a).…”

Navigating interconnected and electrified industries in the landscape of uncertainty : Exploring outcomes and values within circular solutions, and Swedish electricity supply and utilisation dynamics

“…In this thesis, categorising according to the SNI 2007 allows for a more specific analysis that adheres to general classifications. This is desirable because it has otherwise proven to be challenging to compare and relate results between industrial sectors and, for example, processes (Andersson, 2020). Research related to this context uses, for example, NACE Rev 2 to define and examine specific economic sectors at various levels of detail, for instance (Amountzias, 2018;Davidescu et al, 2022).…”

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“…In the last decades, several articles studied the implementation of in-house energy efficiency measures in large industrial companies (Lawrence et al, 2019;Andersson, 2020). However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are a significant proportion of suppliers to large industrial companies, usually do not have the resources to implement EnM in their companies (Jalo et al, 2021a).…”