Energy Efficiency
How is energy used to make tissue?
The tissue paper-making process requires energy to convert the renewable resource of wood into valuable products that are used as an everyday part of life to improve hygiene and convenience. The products are universally available and often accepted as best available alternatives in many applications. While considered energy intensive, the industry also self-generates some of its own energy, often using biomass or efficient co-generation. Most of the energy is used during pulping and paper making processes. Some paper making techniques and technologies require more energy compared to others, but are needed to produce the quality products that consumers and customers require.
Better energy efficiency will often depend on the age and the technology of the paper machine. Switching to the best available technology is not economically sustainable, as the cost of a paper machine can be greater than €100 million and require more than 2 years to install a replacement and get it running smoothly.
During the manufacturing process we require heat to dry the paper. This heat is generated through direct heating (natural gas) and with steam. In the majority of our mills, steam is also generated from natural gas which emits lower Green House Gases than other alternatives. We are committed to replace all our coal steam boilers by natural gas boilers by the end of 2012.
Electricity is purchased from the grid, and self-generated using on-site co-generation units in which GP EMEA has invested over € 20 million within last few years. Co-generation is considered to be the most efficient way of converting fossil fuels into steam and electricity, with efficiencies that can be greater than 95%. The use of co-generation to increase overall energy efficiency in an economical manner generally requires fossil fuels. However, co-generated heat and energy is generally about twice the efficiency of energy purchased from the grid.
Our achievements
Georgia-Pacific EMEA invested over €20 million in cogeneration units over the last few years. For energy consumption, a performance indicator we watch is energy intensity, or total energy consumption per unit of production (often per ton) of tissue; this includes natural gas, electricity, coal and fuel (limited) used to produce tissue and cotton products. Since 2007, we managed to reduce total energy consumption by 3%.
Some key projects that led to this energy/CO2 reduction
- Replacing high-consuming vacuum pumps with turbo blowers.
- Recycling warm waste water.
- Optimizing heat exchangers.
Our commitment
In the coming years, Georgia-Pacific EMEA will continue to improve overall energy efficiency to remain globally competitive, which will also reduce the CO2 intensity of our products.