REPORT ON

ENERGY MANAGEMENT IN PULP & PAPER

INDUSTRY

By Sarang Wadyalkar

As part of the interview

Date-27th Mar 2010

INTRODUCTION:
The pulp and paper industry is comprised of three primary types of producers:

(1) pulp mills, which manufacture pulp from wood and other materials (such as wastepaper);

(2) paper mills, which manufacture paper from wood pulp and other fiber pulp; and

(3) paperboard mills, which manufacture paperboard products from wood pulp and other fiber
pulp.

Electricity is used throughout the typical pulp and paper mill to power motors and machine
drives, conveyors, and pumps, as well as building operations such as lighting and ventilation
systems. The largest use of fuels is in boilers to generate steam for use in pulping, evaporation,
papermaking, and other operations. Black liquor is the dominant fuel for boilers in the pulp and
paper industry, followed by hog fuel and natural gas, and to a lesser extent, coal (EEA 2005).
Natural gas and oil are typically used in lime kilns

Energy costs are a sizeable fraction of operating costs, equal to

roughly 20% of the industry’s total cost of materials in 2006.

Breakdown of pulp and paper industry motor-system electricity use by

Application

5% 5% Compressed Air
Pumps
22%
Material Handling
32%
Miscellaneous
Fans
20% Material Processing
7%
9% Refrigeration

Source: U.S. DOE (2002a)

SCOPE :
The major operations in the pulp and paper mill provide enough
scope/opportunities for energy saving as all of those consume huge
amounts of electricity and steam to run a lot of process equipments such
pumps, motors, valves, compressors, dryers, digesters, cutters, etc.

WOOD PREPARATION

ELECTRICITY Debarking & Chipping

HOG FUEL (Bark)

PULPING

ELECTRICITY CHEMICAL MECHANICAL WASTE PAPER

PULPING PULPING
STEAM
PULPING

BLEACHING

ELECTRICITY BLEACHING KNEADING

STEAM PLANT

CHEMICAL RECOVERY

ELECTRICITY LIQUOR THICK BLACK RECAUSTICIZAT

LIQUOR ION
STEAM CONCENTRATION

STEAM ENERGY
RECOVERY
ELECTRICITY
PULP DRYING

ELECTRICITY PULP DRYING

STEAM

PAPERMAKING

ELECTRICITY STOCK FORMING PRESSING DRYING

PREPARATION
STEAM

FORECASTING

In energy demand according to

Grades of paper

Seasonal variation in prices and weather conditions

Price of electricity

Lot size
CHALLENGES IN IMPLIMENTATION:
Energy is a critical and often unpredictable production factor; many know that but very few
people act to manage it. In paper industry where a machine is run by a team consisting
manager, executive, supervisors, operators & their helpers. Each one’s role is defined but
when it comes to energy consumption they look at others or simply ignore because they
don’t own the responsibility or probably they think they don’t. But the real crunch goes to
the owner of the production firm who has to pay the energy consumption bills.

There are some challenges while implementing energy management in paper industry

1. Many mills still use old equipments which are not energy efficient and a replacement
of capital equipments is huge cost
2. The current set up needs to be re-engineered to accommodate new energy saving
technology
3. The workforce needs to be convinced and trained to accept and run new practices
4. Raw material should be of high yield so that energy utilized/ton of paper is lower
5. Resistance to “Change” has to be dealt with at every stage in organization
6. Sense responsibility ownership by each employee towards his role
7. Self driven zeal to contribute towards energy management
8. Reach to the grass root level so that each one in the paper mill knows the purpose
CHALLENGES FOR THE OWNER:
A. Estimating the future energy needs of the firm keeping in mind the expansion
and type of technology available at present and in future.
B. Allotment of dedicated budget and other resources as no business activity
could be brought into practice unless it is budgeted or funded for.
C. Establishing a dedicated human resource team working towards energy savings
and management
D. Identifying the leader and right people to drive the Energy Management
Dept/Cell. The owner has to find a team leader who understands the energy
saving needs and is able to drive people to match up with the organization’s
goal.
E. Making sure that the energy management cell’s purpose is clear to everybody
working in the organization; right from the top to bottom in the hierarchy.
F. Coordinating with energy suppliers for the Demand & Supply according to
production schedule and seasonality.
G. Commitment to the cause leading by example, so that everyone in the
organization follows and gets to see the owner’s commitment.
H. Setting target and taking frequent review.
I. Reward the best performers.
ROADMAP & STRATEGY:
At the component and equipment level,

Energy efficiency can be improved through regular preventative maintenance, proper

equipment loading and operation, and replacement of older components and equipment with
higher efficiency models (e.g., high efficiency motors) whenever feasible.

At the process level,

Process control and optimization can be pursued to ensure that production operations are
running at maximum efficiency so as to make full use of available energy supplies.
Note down avg. energy needs and patterns for each variety in ideal conditions.
Use those as metrics for future references.

At the facility level,

The efficiency of space lighting and ventilation can be improved while total facility energy
inputs can be minimized through process integration, where feasible.
Plant location should be such that all future needs of energy are fulfilled and where energy
costs are lower.
Factory layout should be made according to the flow of raw materials for each process.

Appoint an Energy Manager:

Energy Manager – Role & Importance

Energy manager will occupy an important position and be the focal point of all the activities
pertaining to energy management in the organization. The energy manager will provide
leadership in the development of policy on Energy Management Action Plan and play a key role
in the formulation of corporate energy policy. He’ll also prepare the information to be
submitted to the Designated Agency with regard to the energy consumed and action taken on
the recommendation of the Accredited Energy Auditor.

Responsibilities and Duties of Energy Manager will be:

• Establish an energy conservation cell & prepare an annual activity plan

• Develop and manage training programme for energy efficiency at operating levels
• Develop integrated system of energy efficiency and environmental improvement
• Initiate activities to improve monitoring and process control to reduce energy costs
• Co-ordinate implementation of energy audit/efficiency improvement projects through
external agencies
• Establish / participate in information exchange with other energy managers of the same
sector through association

Lastly,
At the level of the organization, energy management systems should be implemented to ensure
a strong corporate framework exists for energy monitoring, target setting, employee
involvement, and continuous improvement.
So the correct picture should be,

This process should be made a continuous practice in the firm.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The total solution includes planning and scheduling tools to optimize energy use and supply at
every stage in paper making, use energy balance management tools to support the real-time monitoring
and control of the energy balance in processes like, Wood Preparation, Pulping, Beaching, Chemical
Recovery, Pulp Drying, Paper machine and reporting tools to evaluate and report energy consumption,
costs, efficiency and other energy-related information.

Opportunities for cost reduction are greatest when both electricity consumption and prices vary
over time, which is common in process industries. Typically, the overall cost reduction can be 2 to 5 per
cent of the total energy cost.

The savings result from various sources,

for instance:

■ Lower electricity purchase prices due to accurate consumption forecasting

■ Avoiding price peaks and penalty charges

■ Employing optimal resources in the supply of electric power

■ Enhanced awareness of energy consumption and energy costs

■ Early detection of poor performance based on real time monitoring of performance against set targets

Payback from reduced energy consumption and price

■ Savings = Energy bill * drop (%) in energy (price + consumption)

■ Total savings 2-5% of the energy bill depending on the initial level

The planning tools include, (source-ABB energy management solutions)

1. Load Forecasting module to predict energy consumption,

2. Contract and Balance Management module to balance energy consumption and supply,
3. Resource Optimization module to calculate optimal supply resources and
4. What-If Simulation module to evaluate and compare alternative operating scenarios.
The energy management system analyzes the use of energy and utilities and supports energy efficiency
improvement by quickly and accurately indicating actual performance and comparing it with set targets.
Some examples of the performance reports are:

■ Consumption and cost of utilities per hour/day/month/year, by individual and aggregated users

■ Consumption and cost of utilities per end product unit

■ Analysis of load profile and peak demand

■ Benchmarking (comparing current performance against the past)

■ Best practices performance

■ Budget performance

The mill level systems collect real-time data from the process, calculate and report electricity, steam,
water and natural gas balances and predict energy consumption. Energy balance data and consumption
forecasts are consolidated in control centers.

Apart from the owner’s commitment and the set up of the energy management cell the
execution of the whole idea is the key. A paper manufacturing firm may go for specialist in this area to
achieve energy savings effectively. Vendors like ABB has energy saving solutions specifically designed to
match the needs of the paper industry.