2

THEORY OF ENERGY INTENSITY

Managements vision and intent is not good enough to achieve energy improve-
ments. Technical concepts and targets must be used as the basis for measuring and
improving process energy efficiency. Energy intensity is one of the key technical
concepts as it lays down the foundation for process energy benchmarking.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In some industrial plants, energy optimization work falls into no-mans land. If you
ask process engineers, supervisors, and operators, they will tell you that they have
done everything they can in making their process units energy efficient. It is
understandable that technical people feel proud of themselves in trying to do their
job right. If you ask plant managers, they may tell you everything is in good order.
The truth of the matter is that there is large room for energy efficiency improve-
ment. To find out the truth, you may ask a few questions: What metrics are applied to
measure the process energy efficiency? What energy indicators are defined for the
key equipment? How do you set up targets for these indicators?
The answers to these three questions will show if the plant management only stays
in good intention but without proper measures in place. If no energy metrics are used
to measure performance level and no indicators are applied for major equipment and
no targets are employed for identifying improvements, the energy management
program is only on the basis of good intent. It is possible to get people motivated with

Energy and Process Optimization for the Process Industries, First Edition. Frank (Xin X.) Zhu.
2014 by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

9
10 THEORY OF ENERGY INTENSITY

good intention. However, the motivation will decline gradually if people do not know
what to do and have no directions.
To overcome this shortfall, two key concepts are introduced, namely, energy
intensity and key energy indicators. The concept of energy intensity sets the basis
for measuring energy performance, while the concept of key energy indicators provides
guidance for what to do and how. Both energy intensity and key indicators are the
cornerstones of an effective and sustainable energy management system. Energy
intensity is introduced in this chapter, while example calculations for energy intensity
are given in Chapter 3. The concept of key indicators will be discussed in Chapter 4.

2.2 DEFINITION OF PROCESS ENERGY INTENSITY

Meaning must transfer to correct concepts and then concepts must be expressed in
mathematical forms for the meaning to be precise and measurable for industrial
applications. Adjectives like excellent, good, and bad, have no quantifiable values for
technical applications because they cannot be measured. Thus, we need a clear definition
of mere linguistic terms from management intent to make sustainable energy perform-
ance improvement. In other words, we need to have an operational definition of process
energy performance that everyone can agree on and relate to and act upon.
Let us start with the specific question: how to define energy performance for a
process? People might think of energy efficiency first. Although energy efficiency is
a good measure as everyone knows what it is about, it does not relate energy use to
process feed rate and yields, and thus it is hard to connect the concept of energy
efficiency to plant managers and engineers.
To overcome this shortcoming, the concept of energy intensity is adopted, which
connects process energy use and production activity. The energy intensity originated
from Schipper et al. (1992a, 1992b), who attempted to address the intensity of energy
use by coupling energy use and economic activity through the energy use history in
five nations: the United States, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Japan. The concept
of energy intensity allows them to better examine the trends that prevailed during
both increasing and decreasing energy prices.
By definition, energy intensity (I) is described by

Energy use E
I : (2.1)
Activity A
Total energy use (E) becomes the numerator, while common measure of activity (A)
is the denominator. For example, commonly used measures of activity are vehicle
miles for passenger cars in transportation, kWh of electricity produced in the power
industry, and unit of production for the process industry, respectively.
Physical unit of production can be t/h or m3/h of total feed (or product). Thus,
industrial energy intensity can be defined as
Quantity of energy
I : (2.2)
Quantity of feed or product
THE CONCEPT OF FUEL EQUIVALENT (FE) 11

Energy intensity defined in equation (2.2) directly connects energy use to produc-
tion as it puts production as the basis (denominator). In this way, energy use is measured
on the basis of production, which is in the right direction of thought: a process is meant
to produce products supported by energy. For a given process, energy intensity has a
strong correlation with energy efficiency. Directionally, efficiency improvements in
processes and equipment can contribute to observed changes in energy intensity.
Therefore, we can come to agree that energy intensity is a more general concept
for measuring of process energy efficiency indirectly.
Before adopting the concept of energy intensity, you may ask the question:
Which one, feed rate or product rate, should be used as the measure of activity? For
plants with a single most desirable product, the measure of activity should be
product. For plants making multiple products, it is better to use feed rate as the
measure of activity. The explanation is that a process may produce multiple
products and some products are more desirable than others in terms of market
value. Furthermore, some products require more energy to make than others. Thus,
it could be very difficult to differentiate products for energy use. If we simply add
all products together for the sum to appear in the denominator in equation (2.2), we
encounter a problem, which is the dissimilarity in product as discussed. However,
if feed is used in the denominator, the dissimilarity problem is nonexistent for
cases with single feed, and the dissimilarity is much less a concern for multiple
feed cases than for multiple products because, in general, feeds are much similar in
composition than products.
The above discussions lead us to define the process energy intensity on the feed
basis as
Quantity of energy E
I process : (2.3)
Quantity of feed F
It is straightforward to calculate the energy intensity for a process using
equation (2.3) where E is the total net energy use and F is the total fresh feed
entering the process. Net energy use is the difference of total energy use and total
energy generation. Process energy use mainly includes fuel fired in furnaces, steam
consumed in column stripping and reboiling as well as steam turbines as process
drivers, and electricity for motors. Process energy generation mainly comes from
process steam generation, and power generation. In many cases, a process makes fuel
gas and/or fuel oil, which are exported to other processes for firing or sold to markets.
This type of fuel is not counted as energy generation as it is regarded as a part of
product slates.

2.3 THE CONCEPT OF FUEL EQUIVALENT (FE)

There is an issue yet to be resolved for the energy intensity defined in equation (2.3).
The energy use (E) for a process consists of fuel, steam, and electricity. They are not
additive because they are different in energy forms and quality. However, if these
energy forms can be traced back to fuel fired at the source of generation, which is the
12 THEORY OF ENERGY INTENSITY

meaning of fuel equivalent (FE), they can be compared on the same basis, which is
fuel. In other words, they can be added or subtracted after being converted to their
fuel equivalent. For simplicity of discussions, definitions of FE for different energy
forms are given here, while examples of FE calculations are provided in Chapter 3.
In general, FE can be defined as the amount of fuel fired (Qfuel) at the source to
make a certain amount of energy utility (Gi):
Qfuel
FEi ; i 2 fuel; steam; power: (2.4)
Gi
In most cases, Qfuel is calculated based on the lower heating value of fuel. Gi is
quantified in different units according to specifications in the marketplace, namely,
Btu/h for fuel, lb/h for steam, and kWh for power. Thus, specific FE factors can be
developed as follows based on this general definition of fuel equivalent. Energy are
required for making boiler feed water (BFW), condensate and cooling water. The FE
factors for these utilities will be discussed in Chapter 3.

2.3.1 FE Factors for Fuel

By default, fuel is the energy source. No matter what different fuels are used, tracing
back to itself makes fuel equivalent for fuel equal to unity:
Qfuel@source
FEfuel  1 Btu=Btu: (2.5)
Gfuel

2.3.2 FE Factors for Steam

A typical process plant has multiple steam headers, typically designated as high,
medium, and low pressure. In some cases, very high pressure steam is generated in
boilers, which is mainly used for power generation. For calculating the fuel
equivalent of steam, a topdown approach is adopted starting from steam generators.
The total FE for each steam header is the summation of all FEs entering the steam
header via different steam flow paths, which include steam generated from on-
purpose boilers and waste heat boilers, steam from turbine exhaust, steam from
pressure letdown valves, and so on. The FE for each steam header is the total FE
divided by the amount of steam generated from this header:


Total FE consumed


FEi ; header i 2 HP; MP; LP kBtu=lb: (2.6)
Total steam generated
i

2.3.3 FE Factors for Power

For power, FEpower is expressed as
Qfuel Btu=h 1
FEpower Btu=Btu; (2.7)
Qpower Btu=h hcycle

where hcycle is the cycle efficiency of power generation and Qpower represents the
amount of heat content associated with power in unit of Btu/h.
ENERGY INTENSITY FOR A TOTAL SITE 13

By using the conversion factor of 1 kW 3414 Btu/h, equation (2.7) is converted to

1 3414
FEpower Btu=Btu  3414Btu=kWh Btu=kWh: (2.8)
hcycle hcycle

Equation (2.8) can be generally applied to different scenarios for power supply such
as power import, on-site power generation from back pressure and condensing steam
turbines as well as from gas turbines, which are discussed in detail in Chapter 3.

2.3.4 Energy Intensity Based on FE

By converting different energy forms to their fuel equivalent, process energy
intensity in equation (2.3) can be revised to give

FE
I process Btu=unit of feed; (2.9)
F
where FE is the total fuel equivalent as a summation of individual fuel equivalent for
different energy forms across the process battery limit.

2.4 ENERGY INTENSITY FOR A TOTAL SITE

The structure of energy intensity indicators can be organized in a hierarchal manner.

That is, intensity indicators are developed for processes first and toward a total site. One
may question why the concept of energy intensity does not apply to process sections
(e.g., reaction section, product fractionation section) of a process. The reason is that
there is strong heat integration between sections of a process unit, and thus energy
intensity for sections cannot fairly represent section energy performance. Energy
transfer across process units could occur, but the chance is much slim compared with
between-process sections. In case of heat transfer between processes, some adjustment
must be made to account for it.
To calculate the energy intensity index for the whole site, aggregate energy
intensity could be defined simply as the ratio of total energy in fuel equivalent
divided by total activity:
P
FEi
I site Pi ; (2.10)
i Fi

where FEi is the total fuel equivalent for process i.

However, there is a problem here with this simple aggregate approach:
Although energy in fuel equivalent is additive, feeds (F) are not because processes
usually have different feeds with very different compositions. In other words, the
problem with equation (2.10) is the dissimilarity in feeds, which cannot be added
without treatment.
14 THEORY OF ENERGY INTENSITY

To overcome this dissimilarity problem in feeds, we could think of a reference site

with energy intensity for each process known in prior. Thus, the total amount of
energy use could be calculated for the reference site, as the summation of the energy
intensity for the reference processes. Let us derive the mathematical expressions
along this line of thought.
When the energy intensity for a reference process is known or can be calculated,
applying equation (2.9) gives the energy use for a reference process as

FEi;ref I i;ref F i;ref : (2.11)

Since FE is additive, the total energy use for the reference site is
X X
FEsite;ref FEi;ref I i;ref F i;ref : (2.12)
i i

Then, an intensity index for the site of interest can be defined as the ratio of actual
and reference energy use:
FEsite;actual
I site : (2.13)
FEsite;ref

FEsite,actual can be readily calculated from individual energy users consisting of

fuel, power, steam, BFW and cooling water accross the site battery limit.
You may ask a critical question: A real process could differ from the
reference process in terms of feed rates and process conditions. How can we
deal with these differences in the energy intensity index calculations? This
question can be addressed by defining the intensity as a function of three major
factors:

I i;ref f i;ref design; conditions; weather; (2.14)

where design, conditions, and weather reflect the actual process. In this way,
equation (2.14) describes the energy performance for the reference processes
with the same attributes as the actual processes, but the energy intensity could
be different. This is because the energy intensity in equation (2.14) for reference
processes is developed based on peers performance, while the energy intensity for
actual processes is calculated based on real data.
The simplest form is a linear expression. For example, if two operating parameters
are considered, the linear form becomes

I i;ref a bx1 cx2 dT ambient ; (2.15)

where a is a structural term that reflects the design performance, while b and c are the
sensitivity factors for x1 (process condition 1) and x2 (process condition 2),
respectively; d is the correction factor for weather; and Tambient is the ambient
temperature in local area.
REFERENCES 15

2.5 CONCLUDING REMARKS

The decline in energy intensity is a proxy for efficiency improvement; however,

energy intensity reflects production and hence is much more universal and commu-
nicable across the process industry.
Clearly, structural and operational changes for efficiency improvements in
processes and equipment can contribute to reduction in process energy intensity in
a big way. A state-of-the-art process gives low energy intensity by design.
However, it could end up with high operating energy intensity if the process is
poorly operated. On the other hand, a poorly designed process could achieve its
best potential if it is operated with diligence. However, good operation could reach
the design limit because the performance is handicapped due to inherently
inefficient design. To improve the process beyond this design limitation, structural
changes must be made.

NOMENCLATURE

A activity such as processing feed or making products

E energy use
F feed rate
FE fuel equivalent; amount of fuel at the source to make a unit of energy utility
(power, steam)
G energy utility
I energy intensity; energy units/feed or product unit
Q heat content
T temperature

Greek Letters
hcycle power generation efficiency; the ratio of the amount of fuel to make a unit of
power

Subscript
ref reference process or total site

REFERENCES

Schipper L, Howarth RB, Carlassare E (1992a) Energy intensity, sector activity, and structural
changes in the Norwegian economy, Energy: The International Journal, 17, 215233.
Schipper L, Meyers S, Howarth RB, Steiner RL (1992b) Energy Efficiency and Human
Activity: Past Trends, Future Prospects, pp. 250285, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.