Constructing an energy efficiency benchmarking system for coal production

Coal mining not only produces, but also consumes a large amount of energy. Coal production has an extremely high energy efficiency potential, and benchmarking is critical to discover this potential. To address problems such as ambiguity of coal production (e.g. underground mining), benchmarking range and absence of both indicators and standards for energy efficiency benchmarking, this paper makes use of product-based and process-based benchmarking. These two techniques are used to construct a bench marking system for coal production with high energy efficiency, and improve the standards used at the eight coal mines owned by the Yankuang Group. Comparison and analysis of benchmarking in enterprises indicates that energy use during raw coal production could be reduced by 22.77%. Across China energy savings from coal production could reach 15.98-32.98 Mtce, with an equivalent 42-87 Mt of CO2 emissions saved. Lastly, this paper provides measures to improve coal production energy efficiency. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.