Socio-Technical Aspects of Potential Future Use of Excess Heat from Kraft Pulp Mills

Paper in proceeding, 2009

The pulp and paper industry is one of the largest energy users in Sweden and in 2007 2.2 TWh of heat was delivered from pulp mills, mainly to district heating systems. In this study, two market kraft pulp mills and two energy companies (ECOs) have been interviewed about their views on excess heat, energy efficiency and energy strategies. The interviews have been brought together with results from previous optimization studies concerning kraft pulp mill excess heat by the authors and results from other related work in a socio-technical synthesis that aims to provide a more comprehensive view on the factors that influence the utilization of kraft pulp mill excess heat than achieved in previous studies. The results show that the kraft pulp mills are more positive towards sales of excess heat than the ECOs, which can be related to the fact that the ECOs take a greater risk when entering a heat cooperation. Another barrier to co-operations are the already existing utilities in the ECOs that compete with excess heat for the position as base load in the district heating systems. Both internal and external use of excess heat can benefit from policy measures. Other important factors are the view on energy-related investments in the mill, the level of communication between the parties, and the goodwill qualities obtained through energy-efficient solutions.