Current Energy Performance of the Pulp and Paper Industry in Japan

Abstract

The pulp and paper industry has been one of heavy energy-consuming industries. Because of that, it has been working very hard to reduce its energy consumption and to improve its efficiency, especially since the notorious oil price hike.
As the result, the ratio of a cost for buying energy in the total production cost has reduced to one third of that 15 years ago.
Recently, energy conservation is worked out in the flame work of global environment, not just as a profit-oriented concern. Japan Paper Association announced a guideline of reducing the energy cost by 10% based on that in 1990 by 2010, defining benchmarks for major four products.
Then, what should we do. They are : improving operating efficiency, utilizing waste heat energy, power generation from waste, combined power generation, and converting processes to less energy incentive ones.