Impact of structural changes on energy efficiency of Finnish pulp and paper industry

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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Date
2019-09-26
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
12
Series
Energies, Volume 12, issue 19
Abstract
A key challenge in prevention of global warming is how to increase energy efficiency, to be able to deal with increased fossil CO2 emissions from rising energy usage. Increasing energy efficiency will decrease energy usage and is in a key role in emission mitigation. The focus is the pulp and paper industry, which is energy-intensive. Development of industrial energy efficiency has been studied before but the role of industrial transformation is still mostly unknown. The knowledge must be improved, to be able to predict future developments in the most effective way. In this research, impact of various production unit closures and start-ups on energy efficiency of the Finnish pulp and paper industry were studied utilizing statistical analysis. Results indicate that about 20% of the Finnish pulp and paper industry energy efficiency improvement between 2011 and 2017 is caused by the major structural changes. The rest, 80% of the progress, was mainly due to improved technology and more optimal operational modes. Additional findings suggest that modern mill start-ups have a significantly greater potential to reduce energy consumption than old mill closures.
Description
Keywords
Energy consumption, Energy efficiency, Paper, Pulp, Structural change
Other note
Citation
Kähkönen , S , Vakkilainen , E & Laukkanen , T 2019 , ' Impact of structural changes on energy efficiency of Finnish pulp and paper industry ' , Energies , vol. 12 , no. 19 , 3689 . https://doi.org/10.3390/en12193689