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Assessment of energy-saving and emission reduction potentials in China’s ammonia industry

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Abstract

As one of the most energy-, emission- and pollution-intensive industries, the production of ammonia is responsible for significant emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local air pollutants. Although many energy efficiency measures have been proposed by Chinese government to mitigate GHG emissions and improve air quality, a less than full understanding of the costs and potentials have been barrier to promoting and implementing these measures. Assessing the costs, benefits, and cost-effectiveness of different energy efficiency measures is essential to advancing this understanding. In this study, a bottom-up energy conservation supply curve was used to estimate the potential of 26 energy efficiency measures in China’s ammonia industry. Their cost-effective implementation results in a potential saving of 271.5 PJ/year for fuels and 5.44 TWh/year for electricity, which equals to 14 % and 14 % of fuel and electricity consumed in the ammonia industry in 2012, and would be responsible for mitigating emissions of annual 26.7 Mt CO2. In addition, the co-benefits of air pollutants emission reductions that result from energy savings were quantified. The results advance the understanding of the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency measures and can be used to augment the efforts in reducing energy use and environmental impacts.

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Acknowledgments

The first author is indebted to China Scholarship Council (CSC) for financially supporting for his research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). This paper benefits from research supported by the MOE project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Science at Universities (12JJD630002), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012BAC20B01), and the China Sustainable Energy Program of the Energy Foundation. The authors would like to thank the following experts (Su Jianying from CNFIA, Guo Shiyi from MIIT, and Tongqing from Tsinghua University) for their questionnaire feedbacks and valuable comments on this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Contemporary Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Ding Ma & Wenying Chen

  2. Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Ding Ma & Wenying Chen

  3. Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Ali Hasanbeigi & Lynn Price

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  1. Ding Ma
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  2. Ali Hasanbeigi
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  4. Wenying Chen
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Correspondence to Wenying Chen.

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Ma, D., Hasanbeigi, A., Price, L. et al. Assessment of energy-saving and emission reduction potentials in China’s ammonia industry. Clean Techn Environ Policy 17, 1633–1644 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-014-0896-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-014-0896-3

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