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What has been missing in most strategies addressing global warming is a recognition that climate change is not an isolated issue. Climate change is closely linked to other national concerns. For example, answers to climate change (the environment) go hand-in-hand with answers to poor productivity (competitiveness), and there are opportunities to address productivity while addressing climate change. The solution is based on automation of energy intensive industrial processes using advanced information technologies and computers. In simple terms, a large part of the solution to both problems (climate change and poor productivity) rests with improving the operations of energy intensive industrial and commercial processes. For example, increased productivity (reduced waste) will result in an indirect reduction of energy use per unit of product made and vice versa. REDUCT assessment studies for Natural Resources Canada showed that in over 30 percent of cases where industry implemented advanced information processing and process automation technologies to improve productivity, there were also gains in energy efficiency. Advanced information and automation technologies foster development of Industries of the Future (IOF) - industries which have higher productivity and higher energy efficiency. Advanced information technology systems can improve productivity and reduce energy use in energy intensive operations through better control and scheduling of production and through reduction of work disruptions. We analyzed over 300 applications of advanced IT in heavy industry and identified many potential energy efficiency measures such reducing energy waste by stabilizing combustion processes, optimizing energy use by better responding to operating changes, reducing peak and average processing temperatures, controlling heat more consistently, and reducing peak demand for electricity Our review of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for Saskatchewan showed that automation of industrial process heat systems has the potential to reduce these systems’ energy use by 7 percent and their carbon dioxide emissions by 4 percent. A similar analysis of the commercial sector showed a 1.3 percent reduction in energy use, which would be equivalent to a three percent reduction in the sector’s carbon dioxide emissions. These findings were confirmed by a US Department of Energy special study which showed that if energy-intensive American industries were to adopt advances in automation, industrial controls, information processing and robotic technologies, they could realize an energy saving of up to 10 percent. In USA this represents 1.7 to 2.0 quadrillion BTUs of energy saved every year. For Canadian manufacturing and heavy industry, the application of advanced automation and information (IOF) technologies would represent a reduction in energy use of over 70 trillion BTUs, which is equivalent to a CO2 reduction of about 10 mega tonnes per year. If you include the energy and power generation sectors, the total reduction in CO2 emissions would be over 1/10 of all greenhouse gases reduction required. And you get a bonus: higher productivity and a higher standard of living for all Canadians. Our field demonstrations of advanced information systems in the pulp and paper, power generation and other industrial sectors showed that it is possible to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at a cost of less than $10 per tonne, and when you factor in productivity gains, the cost comes to just a few dollars per tonne. A few dollars per ton is much less than the $25 to $30 cost per ton of purchasing CO2 emission credits or the $30+ cost per ton to capture and dispose of carbon dioxide emissions.
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| REDUCT & Lobbe
Technologies Inc. P.O. Box 800, 186 - 8120 No.2 Road., Richmond, BC, Canada V7C 5J8 ph: (604) 275-3711 fax: (604) 275-3711 email: dispatch@reduct.com |
Climate Change