Energy systems analysis of Swedish pulp and paper industries from a regional cooperation perspective Case study modeling and optimization

Abstract: The industrial sector uses about one third of the energy end-use in the world. Since energy use in many cases highly affects both the local and global environment negatively, it is of common interest to increase energy efficiency within industries. Furthermore, seen from the industrial perspective, it is also important to reduce dependency on energy resources with unstable prices in order to obtain economic predictability.In this thesis, the energy-saving potential within the chemical pulp and paper sector is analyzed. One market pulp mill and one integrated pulp and paper mill were studied as cases. Energy system changes at the mills were analyzed through cost minimization. The thesis focuses on principal energy issues such as finding the most promising alternatives for use of industrial excess heat, possible investments in electricity generation and choice of fuel. In order to find synergies, the same system was optimized first from the perspective of different operators respectively, and then from a joint regional perspective. Also, the prerequisites for a regional heat market in the region were analyzed.This thesis reveals that the use of excess heat from pulp and paper mills for district heating does not generally conflict with process integration measures. This is partly because of the great availability of industrial excess heat and partly because the different purposes require different temperatures and thereby do not compete. Rather, the results show that they strengthen each other since steam and hot water of higher temperatures are made available for district heating when hot water of lower temperature is used for process integration. However, there are cases when the conditions are complicated by preexisting technical solutions within a system. In these cases, a combination of measures could be necessary.Furthermore, it is concluded that energy cooperation in terms of a heat market between municipalities and industries in the studied region gives opportunity for positive synergies. Switching from expensive fuels such as oil to less expensive biofuel in the region proved to be particularly beneficial. Expanding the capacity for combined heat and power generation is also beneficial for the region as well as increased use of industrial excess heat for district heating. The most financially beneficial scenarios also have the greatest potential for CO2 emission reduction; the emissions would be reduced by about 700 thousand tonnes CO2/year for the region in those scenarios.