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12 October 2022

15 Pages

Industrial CHP with Steam Systems: A Review of Recent Case Studies, Trends and Relevance to Malaysian Industry

,
,
and
1
Axens South East Asia, Kuala Lumpur 50480, Malaysia
2
Mechanical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, SR University, Hanumakonda 506371, India
3
SamYuj Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur 50470, Malaysia
4
Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt

Abstract

Malaysia’s energy intensity (GWh/GDP) shows an increasing trend since the 1990s, leading to the government’s efforts to promote energy efficiency via policies such as the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP), which includes the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) initiative. This paper reviews recent publications in industrial Combined Heat and Power (CHP) with a focus on international case studies relevant to Malaysian industries that use industrial steam and highlights trends within the research area. It also provides the basis for more case studies to be performed in the Malaysian industry to improve energy efficiency while also supporting further academic research in the area. Additionally, the paper documents the importance of data collection and analysis as well as demand forecasting, not only for a better understanding of industrial energy systems but also to increase profitability since system loads may vary throughout a typical year. A multi-criteria and comprehensive approach is recommended in future case studies to ensure energy efficiency, economic returns and environmental impact are considered to ensure long-term sustainability. A summary of barriers to CHP implementation in the industry is also included to provide a broad understanding of industrial CHP.

1. Introduction

There is widespread academic and industrial interest in the energy efficiency field, as evidenced by the variety and quantity of publications in this domain on an international level. There is a strong basis for this interest—the International Energy Agency (IEA) [1] considers energy efficiency as the “first fuel” among energy transitions since it was estimated in 2018 that the efficiency approach by itself can potentially trigger the peaking of GHG emissions by 2020. It also further found that a total of 3.5 GT of CO2 emissions were abated globally between 2015 and 2018 as a result of efficiency measures. This figure was equivalent to the total energy emissions from Japan over the referenced timeframe (IEA, 2018) [1]. Energy efficiency provides three key benefits—limiting climate change, improving economic returns and maintaining energy supply security.
Globally, the industrial sector consumed approximately 54% of total delivered energy in 2016, making it the single biggest consumer of delivered energy worldwide (US EIA, 2016) [2]. In the Malaysian context, the country’s energy intensity (GWh/GDP) shows an increasing trend since the 1990s (MEC, 2018) [3], leading to the government’s efforts to promote energy efficiency via policies such as the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP), which includes the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) initiative (MESTECC, 2015) [4]. The Malaysian industrial sector consumed 28% of the total final energy in the country in 2018, making it the second-largest final energy consumer after transportation (MEC, 2019) [5]. In addition to being a major energy-consuming sector, there are also vast opportunities to improve energy demand and total emissions from industrial activities, as concluded by BoroumandJazi et al. (2013) [6]. Additionally, Malaysia (and other developing Southeast Asian countries) is lagging behind the G8 countries in industrial energy efficiency—defined as units of energy consumed per unit of industrial output (Rahman et al., 2016) [7]. It is, therefore, pertinent to focus energy efficiency efforts on the industrial sector in Malaysia. A common denominator among the energy-intensive industries is the usage of steam systems, either for process heating, electricity generation or both. Steam turbine technology has been in use for power generation since 1884, making it today a mature technology offering high flexibility (both in configuration and output capacity)—these advantages are the reason steam systems are widely in use even today for power generation and industrial purposes (US EPA, 2017) [8].

3. Research Gaps

Three research gaps were identified during this review—firstly, the demand for industrial case study information, which can be used to develop and validate generic and broader models. The issue of limited data availability is apparent even in industrialized countries. Secondly, the limited comparability of case study data implies the need for the inclusion of a standardized case study scenario in future studies (for example, by assuming standardized ambient conditions for the particular industrial plant) in addition to the core case study. Thirdly, the limited information currently available on energy efficiency case studies in the Malaysian industry.

4. Conclusions

This paper recommends and justifies the basis for further case studies to be performed on CHP applications in Malaysian industries to address the research gaps related to broader data availability on CHP in industrial applications, the comparability of results from these studies and provide additional case studies data with a Malaysian context.
The literature review considered international and regional publications, which were then filtered to select topics oriented toward energy-intensive industries present in Malaysia—these included the petrochemical/refining, palm oil, sugar, cement, food, paper and textile industries. Research trends of interest in industrial CHP include the application of biomass fuels, a network approach to using excess industrial heat and advanced numerical methods to optimize CHP configurations.
Further case studies will not only benefit the industrial plants involved by reducing energy intensity and costs but also encourage cooperation between industry players and academia by providing valuable references for future benchmarking and research work. From a broader perspective, the CHP application will enhance technical performance and economic competitiveness in the Malaysian industry and improve energy security in Malaysia by reducing fossil fuel consumption while reducing the environmental footprint due to greenhouse gases.

Author Contributions

S.G.P.: conceptualization, writing—original draft, writing—editing. V.K.V.: conceptualization, supervision, writing—review. J.K.: writing—review. M.M.A.: writing—review. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Acknowledgments

The last author, Mohamed M. Awad, acknowledges the support of the Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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