Preliminary Results from the Industrial Steam System Market Assessment

Abstract

This paper discusses fuel use and potential energy savings in the steam systems of three steam intensive industries: pulp and paper, chemical manufacturing, and petroleum refining. To determine the energy consumption to generate steam in these industries, a combined top down and bottom up approach was used. The top down approach relied on data from the Manufacturing Consumption of Energy Survey (MECS) while the bottom up approach assessed energy intensities of key processes and/or products in each industry. The results of the top down approach indicate that to generate steam the pulp and paper industry used 2,221 trillion Btu, the chemical manufacturing industry used 1,548 trillion Btu, and the petroleum refilling industry use 1,676 trillion Btu. The results of the bottom up assessments indicate that these energy use estimates are reasonable. To determine the fuel savings available to each industry from steam system improvements, expert judgment was elicited. Preliminary results from the effort to determine potential steam system fuel savings are discussed.