Evolution of Energy Consumption in Chemical Industry in Romania

The chemical industry is one of the big energy consumers, the energy having an important weight in the cost of chemical products. The aim of the paper is to analyze the evolution of energy consumption in the Romanian chemical industry in the last 25 years period There are investigated the structural changes produced in this sector, along with the trend of production contraction and consequently energy consumption decline. The data are presented comparatively with the European countries having important chemical industry production. Also, there is an underlining of the factors explaining a relatively higher energy consumption in the Romanian chemical industry, as compared with those of the developed countries and the opportunities to reduce energy consumption in this industrial area.