In-house Emission Reduction Projects

• Introduction
• Opportunities
• Benefits and Risks
• Energy Audits
• Reduction Measures
• Substituting Fuels and Use of Biomass
• Solar Thermal and Geothermal Energy
• Saving Energy
• Investment, Funding and Financial Support
• Training for EU ETS Companies

Environmentally responsible companies, as well as those which expect to emit more than the quantity of permits assigned should consider the option of reducing the carbon dioxide emitted by the company through the implementation of in-house projects.

Internal projects include measures implemented within the emitting facilities with the objective of reducing direct carbon dioxide emissions. These projects can be of different types; they are normally energy-related, although there are some industrial processes which also emit carbon dioxide from chemical reactions other than combustion, where emission reduction projects are feasible.

Opportunities to reduce carbon dioxide in-house emissions can be identified through energy audits or, more generally speaking, energy and carbon dioxide audits. An in-depth analysis of the process and the equipment involved will identify options for fuel switching to less carbon intensive ones, process modification to increase its energy efficiency, equipment substitution or refurbishment to reduce its energy consumption, improvement of process control or use of renewable energies.

The biggest potential for the use of renewable energies in industry is biomass. Where this fuel is available, carbon dioxide-neutral biomass can be used in boilers to substitute other carbon emitting fuels; solar thermal energy or geothermal energy is also an option to be considered to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions where low temperature processes are carried out.

Concentrating solar thermal energy can produce higher temperatures which can also be used for industrial processes. There are also geothermal high temperature reservoirs which reach temperatures higher than 220°C and can be used for electricity production and industrial processes.

In order to perform any internal reduction measures, two requirements need to be fulfilled - the cost-efficient potentials and the financial guarantees/reliabilities must exist.

Reductions measures bring a company various benefits such as:

• support other company goals, e.g. modernisation of the installation parks, reduction of energy costs, etc.
• safer risk estimation and investment planning
• possibility to sell the certificate surplus
• price advantages in comparison to the competition

However, there are also risks connected with introduction of reduction measures, which include, among others, higher costs when implementing measures in regard to the possibly lower price of carbon credits and often high capital commitments. There also exists a possibility of credits deficit, when the applied reduction activities lead to lower emission mitigation than anticipated. In this case, the additional amount of credits must be purchased.

Your company should have someone responsible for energy management who ensures that regular energy audits are carried out.

• An external energy audit helps you to identify the possibilities for energy saving, for the use of renewable energy and ways in which you can reduce emissions in your industrial facility.
• Your company should perform periodically energy audits, especially when any process is modified or when you install new equipment
• Your company should also perform energy audits of all your facilities when there are changes in the energy market, for example if there is an increase in energy prices or carbon dioxide markets are created.

It is important to make sure you carry out the recommendations of your Energy Audits.

Possible reduction measures include fuel switch, efficiency improvement and/or lowering the energy demand, production shifting to installations, which are either not included in the system or have lower emission intensity, production cutback, CO₂ deposition and sequestration.

In the figure below an instance for measures of internal reductions is showed, on an example of a boiler installation for heat production.

There are different measures demonstrated:

I reduction of the heat demand on the customer side;
II + IIa increase of efficiency factor through a condensing boiler;
II in combination with I;
IIa sole procedure;
III + IV further reduction of the heat demand;
V boiler substitution – expansion by a CHP

Different measures of emission reductions on an example of a boiler for heat production (Source: FutureCamp GmbH, 2007)

The relative CO₂ emission levels of various fuels are shown below:

• Biomass is a valuable energy source that does not generate net CO₂ emissions.
• Natural gas generates lower CO₂ emissions than any other fossil fuel, and in many cases the cost per GJ of energy may be less than that of other energy sources.
• Petroleum oil derived fuels (diesel oil, heavy fuel oil, LPG) emit more CO₂ per energy unit than natural gas.
• Coal and coke are the fuels with highest CO₂ emission rates.

You could reduce your company's emissions by:

1. Substituting the fuels you are using by other fuels emitting lower levels of CO₂.
2. Co-firing the fuel you are using with other fuels that generate lower CO₂ emissions, particularly biomass, in your combustion facilities. This fuel could be solid biomass (such as wood or agricultural wastes) if you burn coal, or biogas if you have a suitable organic waste stream from your process.
3. If your company produces biomass waste or residues as part of its operations, you could consider recovering its energy value. You should note that biomass combustion technologies are improving and becoming more efficient all the time.
4. If you are not a producer of biomass waste or residues, investigate further to check whether biomass such as wood waste, agricultural residues and other organic material is available locally and/or could be bought in.

Companies can benefit from using solar thermal energy and geothermal energy to save energy and reduce CO₂ emissions. Low temperature heat (<150°C) generated by these technologies can be used for cleaning, drying, heating, sterilising, industrial refrigeration, air conditioning and other purposes. As discussed in the Opportunities section above, high temperatures can also be obtained by concentrating solar thermal energy or using high temperature geothermal reservoirs.

The use of solar thermal energy is also becoming more competitive as is generation of electricity using photovoltaics - especially in an environment with increasing prices of energy and CO₂ certificates.

In a similar manner, different type of systems have been developed for using the thermal capacity of the ground in almost any type of geology. This low grade heat can be tapped using heat pumps; for such systems it is not necessary to have a geothermal heat source available.

If you are using heat in your process facilities, there are multiple possibilities for reducing the use of energy, entailing a reduction in your energy bill and CO₂ emissions. You should consider the possibility of improving the efficiency of your boilers by installing an economiser, improving insulation, through better process control and maintenance procedures, as well as looking at heat recovery through heat exchangers, etc.

If your company uses a significant amount of heat, whether at a high temperature or at a low temperature, combined heat and power (CHP) may enable you to reduce your energy costs and provide you with additional CO₂ emission credits. CHP can also be used for the generation of cooling through modern absorption equipment which utilises residual heat to produce cooling.

Although the purchase of electricity from a utility does not generate direct CO₂ emissions, the cost of emission permits for electrical utilities is reflected in the price you pay for bought-in electricity. You should carry out an energy audit to analyse the possibilities of reducing your electricity consumption by, for example:

• substituting pumps or electrical motors by more efficient ones or using variable speed drives in pumps and fans.
• Applying up-to-date technology in industrial lighting and compressed air.
• substituting refrigeration compressors by absorption systems to generate cooling using residual heat or renewable energies.
• checking the performance of your electrical network and transformers.
• Use of photovoltaics

If you are expecting to make major modifications in your production facilities or equipment, this may be the moment to implement changes to save energy and CO₂ emissions in your company. Any investment in energy efficiency at this time will show cost benefits while the useful life of facilities will be longer if tighter controls are introduced.

In a scenario with increasing energy and CO₂ prices, the rate of return of your investment will be shorter, so you should take this opportunity to re-plan your energy strategy. In other words, if you are changing your production equipment you should carefully revise the process from an energy consumption point of view.

There may be financial aids available to your company for energy efficiency and CO₂ reduction studies and projects, depending on where your company is located. Details of financial aids and funds can be found elsewhere in this website, as follows:

• EU ETS Financing
• CDM Financing