The pulp and paper industry consumes large amounts of energy. But despite stricter EU requirements for efficiency improvements, there has been no way to measure and compare energy consumption between different companies in a fair way. In collaboration with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, now present a solution that has great potential to be used throughout the EU.

“Even if this would contribute to increasing efficiency by one or a few per cent only, this involves so much energy that it can make a huge difference,” says Kristina Nyström, PhD student at the Department of Management and Engineering at Linköping University.

Globally, the pulp and paper industry accounts for 4 per cent of energy used by the industrial sector. Through its Industrial Emissions Directive, the EU has set efficiency requirements for the industrial sector to reduce climate impact. An important tool for this is to make comparisons between factories within an industry – so-called benchmarking.

“But this has not been possible in the paper industry, because the mills have been so different that comparable results have not been achieved,” Kristina Nyström explains.

Therefore, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, assisted by Linköping University and Chalmers Industriteknik and in consultation with the paper industry, has developed a calculation method to enable comparisons. The method, which is presented in an article in the journal Applied Energy, has great potential to be used throughout the EU, according to Olof Åkesson, former Swedish Environmental Protection Agency employee, who initiated the project.

The solution is to divide paper production into standardised processes such as actual pulp production, dissolution of purchased pulp, drying of pulp or paper production. These processes are common to enough mills for comparisons to be meaningful. In this way, companies can discover what in their processes works less efficiently compared to others, where improvements can be made and which actions would be most beneficial.

In addition, this method allows for more measures to be included in the energy efficiency efforts. One example is that companies are credited with the residual heat from manufacturing that is used in the surrounding community, such as the heating of homes or greenhouses.

Should this method gain ground, it could contribute to a changed approach to energy efficiency. At present, public agencies’ demands for energy audits often focus on details, which risks significant efficiency measures being overlooked.

“The benefit of making the pulp and paper industry more efficient is that this can reduce the use of fossil fuels and release raw materials, biofuels and electricity for other purposes,” says Olof Åkesson.

With the involvement of researchers, public agencies and companies in the pulp and paper industry, chances are high that the method was designed in a way that is useful in practice. The collaboration between organisations can serve as a model for other industries wanting to develop their own measurement methods, according to Kristina Nyström.

Several companies that tested the measurement method have been positive, and it now needs to be spread and tested on a larger scale, the researchers say. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is working to develop the model, now also in dialogue with public agencies and the pulp and paper industry in Finland.

The study was funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Vinnova. The state-owned research institute RISE was also involved in the study.