Examples of CO2 reduction opportunities in the pulp and paper industry based on process integration measures

Paper in proceeding, 2003

Industrial opportunities for reduction of CO2 emissions can be of strategic importance in the future due to such policy instruments as green certificates, trading in CO2 emissions licences and long-term agreements between government and industry. The pulp and paper industry is an industry branch with large heat demands. The heat demands are covered by large amounts of bio fuel but also by fossil fuels. Process integration in the pulp and paper industry reduces the fuel demand but at the same time reduces the possibilities for backpressure production. Different measures will influence the fuel demand/electricity production ratio in different ways. Depending on the type of fuel reduced in the system, the CO2 reduction opportunities also differ. The focus in this study is on a wider system aspect for some process integration measures. The measures in question are improved heat exchanging, heat pumping and process integrated evaporation, which all have proven to be economically favourable in previous studies. Evaluation and discussion on how the CO2 reduction opportunities depend on different measures and conditions are performed within the study. The results are discussed from both societies and industry’s perspective and based on a case study.