Cost‐effectiveness analysis of energy efficiency measures in the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

Summary Energy efficiency improvement is an effective way of reducing energy demand and CO2 emissions. Although the overall final energy savings potential in chemical industry has been estimated in a few countries, energy efficiency potentials by concrete measures applicable in the sector have been scarcely explored and their associated costs are hardly analyzed. In Switzerland, the production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals exceeds all other industrial sectors in terms of energy use and CO2 emissions, and it accounted for 22% of the total industry's overall final energy demand and 25% of the CO2 emissions related to non‐renewable energy sources in 2016. In this study, the economic potentials for energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emissions reduction in the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical industry are investigated in the form of energy efficiency cost curves. The economic potential for final energy savings and CO2 abatement based on energy‐relevant investments is estimated at 15% and 22% of the sector's final energy use and fossil fuel‐related CO2 emissions in 2016, respectively. Measures related to process heat integration are expected to play a key role for final energy savings. The economic electricity savings potential by improving motor systems is estimated at 15% of the electricity demand by these systems in 2016. The size of economic potential of energy efficiency improvement across the sector decreases from 15% to 11% for 0.5 times lower final energy prices while the size increases insignificantly for 1.5 times higher final energy prices. The additional power generation potential based on Combined Heat and Power plants is estimated at 14 MW for 2016. This study is a contribution to the so far limited international literature on economic energy efficiency measures applicable in this heterogeneous sector and can support policy development. The results for specific costs of energy efficiency measures can also be adapted to other parts of the world by making suitable adjustments which in return may provide useful insights for decision makers to invest in economically viable clean energy solutions.

A detailed review on current status of energy efficiency improvement in the Swiss industry sector

“…on the industrial sector, the year of implementation, the annual final energy savings by energy carrier and in many cases both total and additional investment costs. Utilization of the economic data for analyzing the cost-effectiveness of the implemented measures is outside the scope of this study but can be found in [19,24,51,54,57,58].…”

Energy efficiency measures in electric motors systems: A novel classification highlighting specific implications in their adoption

“…Studies have addressed the energy and cost savings coming from improving energy efficiency in electric drives [39]. Further, studies have addressed energy use, and energy savings, together with emission analysis and cost-effectiveness of EMS, with focus on different type of industries: to name a few, Malaysian rubber producing and cement industries [40], [41], garment industrial building in Bangladesh [42], cement manufacturing [43], Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical industry [44], and petrochemical one [45]. Further, experience in US case studies has been reported, by looking at retrofitting standard efficiency motors with higher efficiency ones [46].…”

“…On the other hand, scientific literature has also conducted cost-benefit analyses of EEMs in EMS, nevertheless without sufficient detail over the specific EEMs to be considered at operational level [13]. Further, despite the relevance of cost-benefit analysis, as authors note [10], [14], economics represents an important barrier, but not necessarily the main one [15] and the knowledge itself of financial and economic performance indicators [16], [17], if not complemented by a thorough analysis of the impacts on production, does not offer the full picture [18].…”

A novel universal equivalent applicable to community energy markets

“…18 Stougie et al compared exergy, energy, and economic analysis methods to assess the power generation from fossil and renewable energy sources and indicated that environmental and economic sustainability assessments strongly depend on the models, weighting factors, and energy price but exergy analysis does not. To obtain quantified performance indicators in the system performance evaluation stage, different types of energy on the input side and output side of the energy system should be summed together.…”

“…Zuberi (2019) discussed the economic cost of energy efficiency and indicated that the integrated consideration of energy resources and economic cost provides useful insights into energy system design. 18 Stougie et al compared exergy, energy, and economic analysis methods to assess the power generation from fossil and renewable energy sources and indicated that environmental and economic sustainability assessments strongly depend on the models, weighting factors, and energy price but exergy analysis does not. 19 A theoretical analysis method for the energetic and exergy efficiency of an integrated energy system was introduced by Huang et al in 2018, which indicated that the energy and exergy analysis results of a multi-energy system are different in many situations.…”