Abstract
Increasing energy efficiency within the industrial sector is one of the main approaches in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The production and processing of aluminium is energy and greenhouse gas intensive. To make well-founded decisions regarding energy efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigating investments, it is necessary to have relevant key performance indicators and information about energy end-use. This paper develops a taxonomy and key performance indicators for energy end-use and greenhouse gas emissions in the aluminium industry and aluminium casting foundries. This taxonomy is applied to the Swedish aluminium industry and two foundries. Potentials for energy saving and greenhouse gas mitigation are estimated regarding static facility operation. Electrolysis in primary production is by far the largest energy using and greenhouse gas emitting process within the Swedish aluminium industry. Notably, almost half of the total greenhouse gas emissions from electrolysis comes from process-related emissions, while the other half comes from the use of electricity. In total, about 236 GWh/year (or 9.2% of the total energy use) and 5588–202,475 tonnes CO2eq/year can be saved in the Swedish aluminium industry and two aluminium casting foundries. The most important key performance indicators identified for energy end-use and greenhouse gas emissions are MWh/tonne product and tonne CO2-eq/tonne product. The most beneficial option would be to allocate energy use and greenhouse gas emissions to both the process or machine level and the product level, as this would give a more detailed picture of the company’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Highlights
The global demand for aluminium is predicted to double or even triple by 2050 [1,2,3].The production and processing of aluminium is energy intensive and uses substantial amounts of fossil fuels and electricity.improving energy efficiency in the production and processing of aluminium is important in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Identifying the processes where it may be most useful to implement energy efficiency measures (EEMs) requires information about energy end-use (EEU)
The aim of this paper was to provide a taxonomy for EEU and GHG emissions at the process level in the aluminium industry and aluminium casting foundries
The aim was to analyse the potential for energy conservation and GHG mitigation in the Swedish aluminium industry and two aluminium casting foundries
Summary
The global demand for aluminium is predicted to double or even triple by 2050 [1,2,3].The production and processing of aluminium is energy intensive and uses substantial amounts of fossil fuels (both for energy purposes and as reaction materials) and electricity.improving energy efficiency in the production and processing of aluminium is important in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Identifying the processes where it may be most useful to implement energy efficiency measures (EEMs) requires information about energy end-use (EEU). Improving energy efficiency in the production and processing of aluminium is important in order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There are large differences between countries regarding bottom-up data for EEU in industrial small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and a taxonomy for structuring EEU data and EEMs is needed [4]. Such a taxonomy could help EEMs and GHG mitigation measures to reach their full potential by providing knowledge about which processes have the main potential, deployment levels for how much progress the industry has made, and which areas require future energy policies [4]. Et al [5] highlighted the need for EEU data in order to be able to generalise results
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