Energy savings and greenhouse gas mitigation potential in the Swedish wood industry

Improving energy efficiency in industry is recognized as one of the most crucial actions for mitigating climate change. The lack of knowledge regarding energy end-use makes it difficult for companies to know in which processes the highest energy efficiency potential is located. Using a case study design, the paper provides a taxonomy for energy end-use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on a process and energy carrier level. It can be seen that drying of wood is the largest energy using and GHG emitting process in the studied companies. The paper also investigates applied and potentially viable energy key performance indicators (KPIs). Suggestions for improving energy KPIs within the wood industry include separating figures for different wood varieties and different end-products and distinguishing between different drying kiln technologies. Finally, the paper presents the major energy saving and carbon mitigating measures by constructing conservation supply curves and marginal abatement cost curves. The energy saving potential found in the studied companies indicates that significant improvements might be achieved throughout the Swedish wood industry. Even though the scope of this paper is the Swedish wood industry, several of the findings are likely to be relevant in other countries with a prominent wood industry. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.