A progress report on the Energy-Efficient Quarry project

摘要

The EE-QUARRY project aims to address the energy consumptionof the quarrying industry, which is characterized byhigh energy demands and consequent CO_2 emissions. The useof crushed stone, which is essential to the infrastructure ofour society, could increase more quickly than any other majormaterial. Given the market size, ample resources and stablegrowth potential of this industry, the understanding and disseminationof Energy-Efficiency (EE) opportunities is paramountfor overall European EE goals. Further, since there areseveral thousands of quarries throughout Europe, there is ahuge opportunity for replication of such EE measures. Thispaper will present a progress report of the project 2 years intoits 4-year lifetime. The objective of the project is to developa new modelling and monitoring Energy Management technique.This project will first review the stone extraction andcrushing production processes. This project is analysing indetail the energy use in each operational stage such as rockblasting, transportation, crushing, conveying screening andadded-value-processing. Standard construction EE measuressuch as illumination retrofits and support system optimizationare insignificant relative to overall plant energy use. The identificationof energy opportunities thus relies heavily on overallproduction systems optimization, which not only encouragesEE, but typically benefits productivity as well. EE measureswhich also yield productivity improvements offer economicincentives that have the magnitude and quick payback tofacilitate industry-wide adoption and replication. Once thequarry and its processing plant reach the end of their life-cycle,further opportunities for CO_2 neutralizing activities arise.The intended project outcome is to use the Energy Managementmodel to generate EE opportunities and CO_2 compensationactivities to minimise the environmental impact createdthroughout the quarry life-cycle.