Utilization of Heat, Power, and Recovered Waste Heat for Industrial Processes in the U.S. Chemical Industry

Abstract

This paper presents energy end-use model of the U.S. Chemical Industry. The model allocates combustible fuel and renewable energy inputs among generic end-uses including intermediate conversions through on-site power and steam generation. The results of this model provide the basis to scale energy process-step models. The main federal database to construct energy end-use models is Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This database provides information on how much energy is used for each end-use on a national scale in each industry. The secondary federal database to construct the energy end-use models is the Energy Information Administration’s “EIA-860B: Annual Electric Generator Report.” This database provides information about fuel consumed, gross generation, and recovered waste heat at the prime mover level of detail. The results of the model show that the majority of the fuel input is used directly for the end-uses. Although the rest of the fuel is used to generate steam and power, most of this energy contributes to the end-uses as steam. Therefore, the purpose of fuel consumption at nonutility plants is to run their end-uses. During the course of this study, the most recent U.S. federal energy database available was for the year 1998. Currently, the most recent available U.S. federal energy database is given for the year 2002 based on the data collected from 15,500 establishments.