Energy management at Kimberly Clark Australia's Millicent and Tantanoola Mills

摘要

This paper discusses the methods used by KCA to quantify energy use and identify areas for improvement. The first step was a three-yearly site wide energy audit by personnel from Kimberly Clark Corporations Environment and Energy department, where processes were compared against KC best practice and a list of potential projects drawn up. Following on from this was the development of process specific benchmarks, allowing a site specific energy use target to be calculated based on volumes and process mix. This formed part of KCC's "Vision 2005" (now Vision 2010) environmental goals. A number of projects are described that reduced the Millicent and Tantanoola mills' specific energy use by 15% since 2000. These include heat recovery, refiner plate optimisation, HVAC upgrades and process modifications.rnThe current challenge is to comply with the new Australian Commonwealth Energy Efficiency Opportunities programme. The EEO initiative is discussed, specifically as it pertains to the pulp and paper industry and the integration of KCA's auditing and benchmarking process.rnFinally the ramifications of a carbon dioxide trading scheme are briefly examined. Such a scheme may improve the likelihood of certain energy efficiency projects proceeding, however this needs to be balanced against the potential effect on the bottom line.