Energy Efficiency and Industry

Electricity Saving Possibilities in Household and Office Appliances
Kotitalouksien ja toimistotilojen laitesähkön käytön tehostaminen

Liisa Sillanpää, Anne Korhonen
TTS Institute, Rajamäki, Finland
Työtehoseura, Rajamäki
Hannu Pihala, Aulis Ranne
VTT Processes, Espoo, Finland
VTT Prosessit, Espoo
Veikko Ahponen
VTT Industrial Systems, Espoo, Finland
VTT Tuotteet ja tuotanto, Espoo
Abstract
The task was to assess the penetration of new technology and its effects on energy efficiency by theyear 2010 in the electricity consumption of appliances and lighting in households, excluding leisuretime dwellings, in offices and in the service sector.
Heating of premises and water was excluded. The
work was based on secondary analysis. The BAU
scenario showed that in Finland refrigeration appliances and lighting will consume the biggest
shares of household electricity in 2010, followedby cooking, sauna, and consumer electronics,
which will increase proportionally most. By using
the existing best energy efficient technologies, notalways economically feasible, the expected consumption will decrease, e.g. that of consumer electronics by 20%, of lighting by 65%, and of refrigeration by 14% compared to the BAU scenario. Refrigeration appliances will still consume the biggest share. In the area of lighting, adoption of thebest technical solutions will produce bigger savings in consumption than in other areas altogether.
However, accounting for the additional heat the appliances and lighting are producing, the technically possible savings, 2 050 GWh/a, of household

electricity in 2010 will decrease by 15%, and increase non-electric heating energy by 580 GWh/a.
In offices, electricity consumption of 720 GWh/aof present equipment is quite possible to be decreased by 30%, by utilizing the power management of the appliances. Compared to the BAU scenario, it is possible yearly to save 480 GWh/a, 67%of the consumption of the office equipment, and
690 GWh/a, 75% of the consumption of lighting by
the year 2010 by using the best technologies in all
offices. Calculations on the office equipment are
based on present consumption and on present best
technologies. Savings in consumption of lighting
are based on estimations on office premises in2010 and on the presumption of using the best
technologies in all uses. This development will, on
one hand, indirectly decrease energy consumptionof ventilation, but on the other hand, increase theneed of non-electric space heating energy. Calculations by the Reduce-model showed that CO2 emissions from household electricity obviously will not– by 2010 – be lowered into the level before 2000,
which was 1,6 million tons/a. In offices, CO2 emissions of the appliances including lighting will stay
(in the BAU scenario) at 0.3 million tons/a in 2010,
which is nearly the same level as in the year 2000.
Tiivistelmä
Tavoitteena oli selvittää kotitalouksien ja toimistojen sähkölaitteiden teknologian ja käytön tehostamismahdollisuuksia vuoteen 2010 mennessä. Työ
rajattiin kotitaloussähköön, toimistotilojen valaistukseen ja sen ohjausjärjestelmiin sekä tieto- ja toimistotekniikkalaitteisiin. Loma-asunnot, sähkölämmitys ja lämpimän käyttöveden valmistus eivät
sisälly tutkimukseen. Kotitaloussähkön kulutuk59

sen normaalikehitys (BAU) osoittaa, että kylmäsäilytys ja valaistus tulevat olemaan suurimmat
kulutustekijät. Seuraavina tulevat kulutuselektroniikka, ruoanvalmistus ja sähkösauna. Teknisesti jo mahdollinen kehitys, joka ei kaikkien laitteiden osalta ole taloudellisesti kannattava, vähentää
kulutuselektroniikan sähkönkulutuksesta noin viidenneksen, valaistuksesta lähes kaksi kolmasosaaja kylmäsäilytyksestä vajaan seitsemäsosan normaalikehitykseen verrattuna. Valaistuksen teknisesti mahdollinen kehitys tuottaa suuremman säästön valtakunnallisesti kuin kaikkien muiden tekijöiden vaikutus yhteensä. Sähkölämmitetyissä asunnoissa osa laitelämmöstä hyödynnetään lämmityksessä. Kun se otetaan huomioon, teknisesti mahdollinen sähkön kokonaissäästöpotentiaali (2 050
GWh/a vuonna 2010) pienenee noin 15 %:lla arvoon 1 740 GWh/a. Muissa kuin sähkölämmitetyissä asunnoissa lämmitysenergian tarve kasvaa
noin 580 GWh/a.
Sähkönkulutuksen kannalta parhaan teknologian
käyttöönotto kaikkien rakennusten toimistotiloissa vuoteen 2010 mennessä mahdollistaisi 67 %:nvuotuisen sähkönsäästön (479 GWh/a) toimistotekniikkalaitteiden ja 75 %:n sähkönsäästön (693
GWh/a) valaistuksen kulutuksessa normaalikehitykseen (BAU) verrattuna.
Todennäköisesti kotitalouksien laitesähkön käytön aiheuttama hiilidioksidimäärä ei vuoteen 2010
mennessä ehdi laskea alle vuoden 2000 tason. Toimistojen laitesähkön kulutuksen aiheuttamat hiilidioksidipäästöt ovat BAU-skenaariossa 0,3 miljoonaa tonnia vuonna 2010, mikä on lähes samakuin vuonna 2000.

1 Introduction
1.1 BackgroundOur objective in Finland, as a member of the European Union, is to restrict the emissions of greenhouse gases so that the average annual emissions
during the first commitment period of the Kyoto
Protocol 2008–2012, will not exceed the level of
1990, equivalent of about 76.5 tons of carbon dioxide. Measures to obtain this goal are given in our
national Climatic Strategy, in which emphasis is60

given on increasing efficient use of energy and on
improving energy saving technologies (Government 2001).
In statistics, energy consumption of dwelling includes households and houses, leisure time houses
and farm-houses. According to Statistic Finland
the consumption was about 12.2 TWh in 2000, andthe shares of consumption were: households about
9 TWh, dwellings about 1.8 TWh, leisure time
houses about 0.5 TWh and farm-houses about 0.8
TWh. Electric heating of dwellings, which consumed roughly 6.9 TWh in 2000, is not included.
The service sector includes trade and shops, hotels
and restaurants, transportation, storing, data communications, banking, management for estates andbusiness, and other private and public services. According to Statistic Finland the energy consumption of service sector was about 12.5 TWh in 2000.
1.2 Aim and outlining
The task was to assess possibilities to increase efficiency in technology and in the use of electrical appliances in household and service sectors. The aim
was to figure the potentials of efficiency by theyear 2010 with consideration of economical andenvironmental effects, especially impacts on CO2emissions.
In the field of dwellings this report focuses on its
biggest share, consumption of household electricity. This report will not deal with space and water
heating. In the field of services this report focuseson the office equipment and lighting, which coverabout 40% of the total electricity consumption in
offices (about 4,1 TWh in 2000).
Electricity consumption of appliances means here
the electric energy supplied from power grid to anelectric appliance. Heat generated by an electric
appliance has been partly reckoned in calculations.

2 Methods
The first stage was to assess the state of art of technology in use. Bottom-up calculations were used.
Concerning households the present penetration ofeach appliance group in households and the average consumption based on tests or manufacturers’
claims were used to reach the total household electricity consumption, which was 9 035 GWh, in 2000
according to Statistics Finland. The calculatedshares of appliance groups were subtracted from thetotal giving the remainder, “miscellaneous”. In addition, the level of electricity consumption of thebest technology on the markets was gathered.
Concerning office equipment the level of electricity
consumption of the selected equipment groups wasgathered based on figures from different countries.
The second step was to assess the penetration of
new technology of each appliance group within the
coming 10 years and its effect on energy savings.
This was done by using the Reduce-model.
The third stage was to assess the electricity saving
potential and its effect on CO2 emissions in Finland
between BAU- and saving scenarios in these two
sectors by the year 2010.

3 Electricity consumption ofhousehold appliances and saving
potentialities
3.1 Development in general
In 2000 the largest consuming groups were refrigeration appliances, cooking, consumer electronics,
and lighting, and three of the first groups will still
stay as the largest ones by 2010 (Table 1) even in
the energy saving scenario.
Consumption in 2010 was forecast mainly basedon two scenarios. Business as usual (BAU) meansthat no new means will be implemented to improveenergy efficiency. In “Technically possible” scenario it was assumed that only the best techniquewill be bought. The BAU-scenario resulted in
9 544 GWh in 2010. The technically possible scenario represented 21.5% declining consumption
being about 7 500 GWh in 2010.

Table 1. Shares of household electricity consumption in 2000 and in 2010, and the saving potential.
Appliances

2000

2010

GWh/a

BAU,
GWh/a

Techn.,
GWh/a

Saving pot.,
GWh/a

Refrigeration appl.

2 216

1 710

1 455

255

Consumer electronics

1 080

1 545

1 162*

383

Cooking

1 156

1 265

1 169*

96

HVAC (one-family h.)

438

550

455

95

Car heating (one-family h.)

146

200

200

0

Washing machines

570

444

398

46

Textile dryers

107

145

114

31

Dishwashers

330

246

229*

17

Sauna stove

807

1 000

1 000

0

1 617

1 747

618

1 129

568

692

692

0

9 035

9 544

7 492

2 052

Lighting (indoor+out.)
MiscellaneousAll* economically feasible613.2 Development by appliance groups
3.2.1 Refrigeration appliances

In spite of increasing amount of refrigeration appliances, their share of electricity consumption
seems to decrease by 2010 by both scenarios. Ifneither the new energy-labelling nor other means
to improve the energy efficiency of refrigeration
appliances will not be implemented, their estimated consumption will be 1 710 GWh in 2010.
The consumption will be even as low as 1 455
GWh, if only the most energy efficient fridges andfreezers were bought, in addition to all new fridgefreezers being Energy+ -appliances. The saving
between this scenario and the BAU-scenario is
about 255 GWh/a.
3.2.2 Cooking

The number of households will increase by theyear 2010. The use of a cooker and a microwave
oven is supposed to stay at the present level. This is
the reason for increasing energy consumption of
cooking in both scenarios.
The BAU-scenario supposes that the consumptionof ovens and microwave ovens will remain unchanged, but that of hobs will decrease a bit whenceramic hobs are becoming more general. This all
will result in cooking about 1 265 GWh in 2010.
The technically and economically feasible scenario assumes that in addition to more general ceramic hobs, the standby power of microwave ovens
will lower from 4 W to 1 W, and all new ovens willconsume 20% less than the present average (Kasanen 2000). This will result in cooking about 1
169 GWh in 2010. The saving between this scenario and the BAU-scenario is about 96 GWh/a.

In the BAU-scenario, dishwashers will consume in2010 about 246 GWh. If all new dishwashers wereof A-class in energy efficiency (technically and economically feasible scenario), they would consume
about 229 GWh in 2010, and the saving between
this scenario and the BAU-scenario would be 7%.
3.2.4 Washing and drying textiles

Electrical drying is becoming more general resulting in increasing energy consumption in all scenarios in spite of decreasing special consumption of
tumble dryers. Cabin type of dryers will remain at
the present level of energy efficiency, but that ofwashing machines will decrease compared withthe present level.
In the BAU-scenario, electricity consumption ofwashing machines will be 444 GWh and that of drying about 145 GWh in 2010, 589 GWh together.
The technically possible scenario assumes that all
new washing machines and all tumble dryers will
be of the best new technology. In this case thewashing machines will consume about 398 GWh
and the electrical dryers about 114 GWh in 2010.
The saving between this scenario and the BAUscenario is over 10% GWh.
3.2.5 Consumer electronics

Electricity consumption of consumer electronics including phones etc. was calculated to be 1 080 GWh
in 2000. Per one household it means 453 kWh, and ahalf of it goes to different standby modes.

3.2.3 Dishwashers

The BAU scenario assumes that the whole stock ofappliances, excluding stereo- and other audio-appliances, will be replaced by new techniques in
2001…2010. In this case the electricity consumption of the group, including phones, will be about 1
545 GWh, of which the standby consumption will
be about 800 GWh (308 kWh/a/household).

Water and electricity consumption have decreased
remarkably since 1990. In the coming years thisdevelopment will slow down, because no significant new technique is in horizon (GEA 1995). The
total consumption will decrease in spite of higher
penetration, because the new appliances are much
more energy efficient.

Electricity consumption of ADSL- and cable modems making wide band internet connection possible are not included in the total consumption, because the technology of arranging the connections
has not been defined yet. If the connections will bearranged by other means than TV digital boxes,
consumption of household energy will increase.

62

The electricity saving scenario is also based on theassumption that in 2001…2010 the whole stock ofequipment, excluding stereo- and other audioequipment will be renewed, and all consumer electronics will be energy efficient and fulfil GEEA requirements (GEEA 2002).

tric stove will increase by the year 2010, because
nearly all of the new dwellings will be equippedwith a sauna. The amount of constantly supplied
electric stoves will increase. In 2010 the saunas
will consume nearly 25% more than nowadays.
3.2.8 HVAC-systems

These assumptions take off nearly half of thestandby-consumption, which will thus be 450
GWh/a. New technology stereos will also consume about 50% less than the present ones, saving
99 GWh. TV digital boxes seem to give the biggest
saving, but only with reservations, because this kindof equipment is under constant development and thewhole stock will be renewed. Decrease of electricity
consumption will mainly be due to the development
in standby power consumption technology.
3.2.6 Lighting

Lighting represented some 18% of the household
electricity consumption in 2000, corresponding
absolute annual consumption of 1 617 GWh.
This figure includes outdoor lighting of one-family
houses, but no other houses, where lighting is a component of the electricity consumption of the estate.
In the BAU-scenario the share of lighting in electricity consumption will increase to 1 747 GWh by
the year 2010. According to the realistic saving
scenario, the amount of compact fluorescent lamps(single-capped and self-ballasted fluorescentlamps) per household will be increased from two(BAU) to six by the year 2010. In this case the electricity consumption of lighting will be 1 368 GWh
in 2010. The saving between this scenario and the
BAU-scenario is about 379 GWh/a (22%).
With the existing technique, the most remarkablesaving would be achieved by changing all incandescent lamps to fluorescent lamps. This would decrease
the share of lighting in 2010 to as low as 618 GWh,
and the saving would be 1 129 GWh/a (65%) compared to the BAU-scenario.

In 2000 the HVAC-systems in one-family houses
consumed about 438 GWh, which is included in
the household electricity consumption. It should
also be noted that nowadays it is a trend to installeven in blocks of flats and in terrace-houses ventilation systems per a flat, and the electricity needed
to use it will be included into the household electricity consumption.
In the BAU-scenario, the share of ventilation in
one-family houses will increase proportionally a lot
by the year 2010, because the annual amount of newsmall houses will be about 10 000, and they will befurnished with automatic ventilation systems.
This development will increase the electricity consumption of ventilation by 90 GWh in 2010 to a total consumption of about 248 GWh.
In the saving scenario, technically possible, theventilation fans will be equipped with good efficiency DC motors, and different pumps will beequipped with adjustable speed control.
In the case that all one-family houses, furnishedwith air-conditioning and heat recovery, will beequipped with DC motors in 2010, and saving
achieved would be 30% compared to conventionalfrequency converters, the saving in electricity consumption would be about 56 GWh, and the total
share of ventilation would be 192 GWh.
Pumps of oil-fired boilers and drill well pumps aswell as building automation belong to the HVACsystems, but here they are dealt with the energy
consumption of “miscellaneous”.

3.2.7 Sauna

3.2.9 Miscellaneous in household energy
including block heaters

The share of saunas with an electric stove of thehousehold electricity consumption was about 807
GWh in 2000. The number of saunas with an elec-

In 2000 the share of miscellaneous in householdenergy was about 568 GWh. It will increase to 692
GWh by the year 2010.
63

The block etc heaters for cars took in 2000 about
146 GWh of the household electricity consumption. This share will increase to about 200 GWh by
the year 2010, because these heating systems are
standard equipment of new cars.
3.3 Electricity of appliances andspace heating
Electricity used by the appliances finally converts
to heat and during the heating period it can partly
be utilized for space heating. The type of the building, its ventilation and heating systems as well as
the timing of the heat loads are decisive for the extent of utilisation of this converted heat.
Lighting is mainly used during heating season andin all spaces of the dwelling. That’s why the heatfrom lighting can best be utilized, especially inhouses with direct electric heating and with sensitive thermostats in addition to air-conditioning andheat recovery.
Because of the need to compensate in space heating the decreased heat from energy efficient appli-

ances, the electricity saving potential in the saving
scenario needs to be corrected from 2 052 GWh/a
in 2010 to 1 713–1 761 GWh/a. The efficiency
used in the calculations was 60–77% for lighting
and 50% for appliances. Additional heating energy
will be about 580 GWh/a, increase of one third forhouses with heating systems other than direct electricity.
3.4 Electricity saving potentials ofhousehold appliances
Consumption of household electricity in 2010 will
be about 9 500 GWh or about 7 500 GWh depending on the scenario. The total electricity saving potential is about 2 050 GWh/a, but after correction
for heating 1 713–1 761 GWh/a.
Lighting offers the biggest potential, over 50%,
followed by refrigeration appliances and consumer
electronics (Table 2).
Some of these potentialities are not economicallyprofitable, yet. However, for penetration of efficient consumer electronics and cooking, even dish-Table 2. Electricity saving potentials of household appliances in 2010.
Savingpotential,
GWh/aCorrected
saving potential,
GWh/a% of the totalsaving potential

Refrigeration appliances

255

223

12.7–13.0

Consumer electronics

383

335

19.0–19.6

Cooking

96

84

4.8–4.9

HVAC-systems *95

76

4.3–4.4

Car heating *

0

0

0

Washing machines

46

40

about 2.3

Dryers (tumble-, cabin-)31

27

1.5–1.6

Dishwashers

17

15

about 0.9

Sauna

0

0

0

913...961

53.3–54.6

00

1 713...1 761

100

Appliance

Lighting (indoor+outdoor)
MiscellaneousAll*one family houses

64

1 129
0
2 052

washers, there are no economical barriers any
more. E.g. in consumer electronics the price of energy efficient technique or components is nothigher than that of the less efficient, but they are
only installed in more expensive appliances. In
cooking the potential is technically and economically profitable according to the SAVE-project(Kasanen 2000), including decreased standby
power in microwave ovens, which is economical,
too. In dishwashers the best options according to
the GEA-project are now a reality (GEA 1995).

with different energy efficient household appliances.

By refrigeration appliances with the least life cycle
costs, also economically realistic, it would be possible to achieve in 2010 one fifth of the saving of
the technically possible scenario.

Market penetration of an energy efficient appliance is subject to the provision that the applianceprice is optimal compared to the saving achieved;
low enough to the household and high enough tothe manufacturer. One example is the penetrationof the compact fluorescent lamp, which has beenon the market for a long time, but without any bigger market share. Its price is about 10 euro and penetration in 2000 only few per cents. The Reduce
model showed that decreasing the price to 3,4 euro
would increase its penetration to 80%, which
would lower electricity consumption of lighting to
one third from the present one by the year 2010.

By washing machines with economically profitable life cycle costs, it would be possible to achieve
in 2010 one tenth of the saving of the technicallypossible scenario. Concerning dryers, the technically possible option, the heat pump, is still economically unrealistic. However, one third of its efficiency would be achieved by using washing machines with high spin efficiency, which, on theother hand, are not always profitable for consumers, because spin efficiency is often linked withprice. So, it is the patterns of use, which are decisive; less runs with full load and lower washingtemperatures.
To achieve the saving potential of about 900 GWh
in lighting in 2010 would require changing all incandescent lamps to fluorescent lamps, which isunrealistic. It is realistic to increase the number ofcompact fluorescent lamps from two (BAU) to six
per a household by the year 2010. This would givea saving of about 380 GWh/a.

4 Reduce model
The Reduce is a socio-economical model including statistical analyses (Krujk et al. 1997). It is useful to figure the penetration of energy efficient appliances and actions into the market, in addition tosectors of economics with certain restrictions. In
this project it was used to examine the household
electricity consumption and saving in connection

Energy labelled household appliances were a goodstarting point for the use of the Reduce model offering a distinct option when renewing a household
appliance. Refrigeration appliances were examined in three groups, and good examples were dishwashers and washing machines as well as lighting.
Electricity consumption in these groups could beshown to decrease.

According to the Reduce model, fridges of C class,which are quite energy efficient but with only moderately higher prices, will take a big market share.
But even removing appliances of this class fromthe market in order to enhance fridges of A or B
class would not increase electricity saving by theyear 2010.
Consumer behaviour in energy saving seems not
be optimal in general. It would be economicallyclever to be more active to choose an energy efficient appliance instead of the conventional one.
However, it is not beneficial for electricity saving
in total to produce more efficient, but too expensive
appliances. And it is not economical to change an
old but still operating appliance to a modern one.
Moderate price development of electricity does notaffect on electricity consumption in households; anincrease of 50% in the price level would be neededto achieve a remarkable increase in motivation toelectricity saving.
65

This saving potential is very theoretical. In lighting
it would require the best techniques in all offices.
In this case the electric power would be 5 W/m2,
occupancy sensors would decrease the annual consumption by 15% and an automatic lighting control system including daylight compensation byadditional 10%.

New measures would be needed to lower the electricity consumption under the level of 2000 by theyear 2010. In any case, the development of electricity consumption will stay lower than that of
GNP.

5 Electricity consumption of officeequipment and energy saving
potentialities

Concerning office equipment the saving potential
is more real, because nearly the whole stock willchange to new ones by the year 2010. In addition,
decreased electricity consumption will indirectly
decrease the electricity consumption of ventilation. In this group of office equipment the products
are developing rapidly. Real possibilities for electricity saving could be achieved by selecting themost efficient appliances and adjusting the rightsettings and power managements. However, to findthe best solutions, monitoring and new research isneeded.

This project examined two of the most significant
groups in offices: office equipment and lighting.
Calculated consumption of these groups in theyears 2000 and 2010 are represented in Table 3.
They covered about 39% of the total electricity
consumption of offices and administration, which
was 4 094 GWh (in 1998).
Office equipment includes PC work stations with
servers, printers and copy machines.

90% of electricity consumption of copy machines
and printers is due to standby consumption. The users normally don’t adjust the power management
system. Measurements of this project showed that
optimising the set values could decrease electricity
consumption of copy machines even as much as
25%. Multi Function Devices combining different
operations would decrease the amount of equipment resulting in a decrease in standby consumption as well.

Electricity consumption of all office equipment
and telecommunication was estimated to be about
1 TWh in 2000. Saving potential of office equipment will be 251 GWh in 2010, if the power management would be utilized to 100%. To achieve thetotal electricity saving potential of 1 172 GWh in2010 means that all existing best technology would
be used in all offices. This development would increase the need of non-electric heating by about
410 GWh/a.

Table 3. Electricity consumption in the scenarios and saving potential in offices.
2000

2010
BAU

(GWh)

Office equipment
Lighting

Equipment group

All

66

Saving potential
2010

(GWh)

2010
Technicallypossible
(GWh)

719

719

240

479

890

927

234

693

1 609

1 646

474

1 172

(GWh)

6 CO2 emissions of household
appliances and office equipment
The calculations were based on the assumptionthat the environmental impact of the electricity
generated for households is similar to that in Finland in general. Kyoto 1 scenario (MTI 2001), thescenario of electricity generation based on naturalgas, was used, and assessments were made on thetiming and the rate to limit the use of condensing
coal-fired power plants and on the net imports ofelectricity. The average emissions of electricity
generation in Finland were used (Lehtilä 2002).
The trend is ascending/increasing for some years
before the measures to limit emissions start to influence, decreasing special emissions. In the year
2010 the level of 2000 would be achieved.
CO2 emissions of household electricity consumption for the years 2000–2010 were calculated
based on 5 scenarios. Biggest emissions resulted ina scenario based on GNP, and the least on the Technically possible scenario. The others, the Reduce
model, the BAU-scenario and the BAU trend-estimation method, gave nearly the same results,
which were obtained between the two former ones.
It seems that the CO2 emissions of household electricity consumption cannot reach the level lower
than in 2000, about 1.6 million tons, by the year
2010. The BAU-scenario and the scenario representing the amount of dwellings are showing thelevel of 1.8 million tons, and only by special measures for energy saving 1.6 –1.8 million tons could
be a realistic target in 2010.
The CO2 emissions of electricity consumption of
office equipment will be 0.3 million tons/a in 2010
according to the BAU scenario. Theoretically it
would be possible to decrease it to as low as 0.09
tons/a, but the realistic target is 0.2 tons/a in 2010.

7 Discussion and conclusions
In the calculation, many assumptions and generalisations have been used, which are causing uncertainty of the results. Even the household electricity
consumption of the base year, 2000, has been estimated since the last measured data originates from1993. Refrigeration appliances are taking the biggest share, and even that might be underestimated,because we had no statistics about the amount of socalled “second appliances”, mostly freezers andoften the older ones. The present 14 years was usedas the life time of the refrigeration appliances, but
fridge-freezers on the market are shifting to models with only one compressor, which usually gives
lower energy consumption, but its influence on thelife time has not been proven.
The trends of food management, home made or
ready meals or even eating outside of home, is very
sensitive to the economical and social factors. International food chains are also penetrating in Finland.
Energy labelling of washing machines and dishwashers has gradually changed the programs
meant for this testing to be more time consuming toensure good energy efficiency and washing results.
Calculations are based on these programs, but consumers might shift to different “rapid” programs,
which often are less energy efficient.
Standby modes might become more general than
expected and increase electricity consumption. On
the other hand, smart appliances might become
more general, too, and decrease electricity consumption.

67

Publications and reports made under
the project

GEEA 2002. Group for Energy Efficient Appliances,
Net document 2002. Referred 21.02.2002. Available at: http://efficient.appliances.org

Korhonen, A., Pihala, H., Ranne, A., Ahponen, V., Sillanpää, L. 2002. Kotitalouksien ja toimistotilojen
laitesähkön käytön tehostaminen. [Electricity saving possibilities in household and office appliances including lightning. (In Finnish, with English
abstract)]. TTS-Institute, Publications 384, Helsinki 2002. 158 p.

Government. 2001. National Climate Strategy, Finland.
Government Report to Parliament. 27.3.2001. VNS
1/2001 vp.

References
GEA 1995. Washing Machines, Driers and Dishwashers. Group for Efficient Appliances. Background Reports. Volume III. Long-term efficiency
targets, technical and economical analyses. Van
Holsteijn en Kemna, design engineering consultants, Netherlands.

68

Kasanen, P. 2000. Efficient Domestic Ovens. Final report. SAVE II Project (4.1031/D/97-047). TTS-Institute’s Publications 371. Helsinki 2000. 91 p.
Krujk, H., Harmelen, A., Uyterlinde, M. 1997. Reduce,
A market penetration model for energy saving options. Model description. Netherlands Energy Research Foundation ECN. 15 p. Petten.
Lehtilä, A. 2002. Private communication for this project.
MTI 2001. The Needs and Possibilities for Greenhouse
Gas Reduction in Finland – Backround Report for
the National Climate Strategy. (in Finnish). Ministry of trade and Industry, Publications 4/2001. Helsinki 2001. 169 p.

Generating CO2 Emission Reductions through Energy Service Companies(ESCOs)Energiapalveluyhtiöiden (ESCO) toiminta ilmastonmuutoksen rajoittamisen
näkökulmasta

Harri Laurikka, Katri Kuusinen,
Kari Hämekoski, Aleksi Lumijärvi,Sari Siitonen, Pertti Koski,Peter Anton, Tomas Otterström
Electrowatt-Ekono Oy, Espoo, Finland
Electrowatt-Ekono Oy, Espoo
Abstract
The business model of Energy Service Companies(ESCOs) is a solution to the financial and humanresource problems in improvement of energy efficiency. Investments in energy efficiency often simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The objectives of the CO2ESCO project
were: (i) to assess in what kind of projects the
ESCO-concept is appropriate and what is its potential to reduce GHG emissions; and (ii) to explore,
whether the emission reductions generated throughvarious projects can support ESCOs and whichmeasures are required for the utilisation of this potential. This paper first discusses the estimation ofemission reductions associated with ESCO projects. Second, the integration of emission reductions into ESCO projects is examined. Third, an
ESCO market potential and the respective GHG
abatement potential in the Finnish industry is estimated. The market potential of ESCOs is estimatedat 1 890 GWh/a heat and 340 GWh/a electricity.
The required investment is around 200 million €.
The GHG abatement potential is estimated at
0.3–0.4 Mt CO2 /a. The results show that emission
reductions do not seem to emerge as a driving force
for most ESCO projects. However, they can generate some extra cash flow, if transaction costs remain at a reasonable level compared to benefits. Industrial ESCO projects in Finland to cut the consumption of electricity and those to cut the consumption of heat are in a very different position,
when it comes to GHG abatement. Any conclusions on the implementation of the GHG abate-ment potential depend decisively on the approachto the emission intensity of electricity.
Tiivistelmä
Energiapalveluyritysten (myös: ESCO) liiketoimintamalli on yksi ratkaisu energiansäästön rahoitus- ja henkilöresurssiongelmiin. Energiansäästöinvestoinnit vähentävät usein myös kasvihuonekaasupäästöjä. CO2ESCO-projektin tavoitteinaoli (i) selvittää, millaisiin hankkeisiin ESCO-konsepti sopii Suomessa ja millainen kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen vähentämispotentiaali ESCO-hankkeisiin liittyy sekä (ii) selvittää, voivatko hankkeiden yhteydessä syntyvät päästövähenemät tukea
energiapalveluyhtiöiden toimintaa ja mitä toimenpiteitä päästövähenemien hyödyntäminen edellyttäisi ESCO-yrityksiltä ja viranomaisilta. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan ensin päästövähenemien suuruuden arviointia ESCO-projekteissa. Seuraavaksi
tarkastellaan päästövähenemien integrointia ESCOsopimuksiin. Kolmanneksi arvioidaan ESCO-hankkeiden markkinapotentiaali Suomen teollisuudessa
ja sen vaikutus kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin. Markkinapotentiaaliksi saatiin 1 890 GWh/a lämpöä ja
340 GWh/a sähköä. Vaadittava investointi on noin
200 miljoonaa €. Kasvihuonekaasujen vähentämispotentiaali on noin 0,3–0,4 Mt CO2/a. Työn tulokset
osoittavat, etteivät päästövähenemät todennäköisesti muodostu useimmissa ESCO-hankkeissa toteutuksen ratkaisevaksi tekijäksi. Niiden avulla
voidaan kuitenkin luoda lisäkassavirtaa, jos hankkeiden transaktiokustannukset pidetään alhaisinasuhteessa saavutettavaan hyötyyn. Kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen vähentämisen näkökulmasta ESCOhankkeet lämmön ja sähkön säästämiseksi teollisuudessa ovat hyvin erilaisessa asemassa. Johtopäätökset hankkeiden lämmön- ja sähkönkulutuksen vähentämisen päästövaikutuksesta riippuvat
ratkaisevasti tavasta lähestyä sähkön päästöintensiteettiä.
69

1 Introduction

2 Estimation of emission reductions

The business model of Energy Service Companies(ESCOs) is a solution to the financial and humanresource problems of energy efficiency improvement, which often prevent or postpone investments
in energy efficiency. ESCOs make an energy performance contract with the client, in which the
ESCO commits itself for delivering a turn-keyproject to the client. The ESCO is responsible forthe planning, implementation, financing and operation of the project. The investment is amortised
through the energy cost savings it generates.

Emission reduction refers to the reduction in emissions achieved through the project in comparison
with the baseline, an emission scenario without the
project. In energy efficiency projects, the estimation of emission reductions can be made in twophases: i) estimation of the energy saving and ii)
estimation of the emission intensity of the energy
saved. The first phase is an integrated part of any
ESCO project.

Investments in energy efficiency often simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
As climate change mitigation seems to create amarket for emission allowances and reductions,emission reductions generated in ESCO projects
may become an additional factor that must be taken
into account in project planning and implementation.
The objectives of this study were: (i) to assess inwhat kind of projects the ESCO-concept is appropriate and what is its potential to reduce GHG
emissions; and (ii) to explore, whether the emission reductions generated through projects can
support ESCOs and which measures are required
for the utilisation of this potential.
This paper is an executive summary of the
CO2ESCO project managed by Motiva Oy and primarily implemented by Electrowatt-Ekono Oy
within the framework of the Climtech programme
administered by Tekes, the National Technology
Agency in Finland. The key results of the project
are structured here as follows:• estimation of emission reductions in
ESCO projects• integration of emission reductions into
ESCO projects• GHG abatement potential with ESCOs
in Finnish industry.

70

In this project, estimation of emission intensity forthe energy saved in a given ESCO project was studied in three distinct cases: i) heat savings from aheat only plant; ii) electricity savings; and iii) heatsavings from a combined heat and power (CHP)
plant. At least two different levels can be distinguished in this kind of analysis: impacts on thecompany studied and impacts on the energy system as a whole. The latter was selected as the basis
for the analysis.
Heat savings from a heat only plant should be analysed project-specifically. The project boundary
should cover the heat generation system. If there
are several plants with distinct features, their dispatch order should be taken into account in the determination of the emission intensity. The time dimension of the intensity should rely on a scenariothat is based on the techno-economic lifetime of
the boilers. If the system is simple and stable, thebaseline emission intensity may be fixed. In thecase there are several plants using different fuels, a
revisable level of baseline emission intensity may
be considered.
Emission intensity of electricity should be genericfor a given grid. In Finland an appropriate projectboundary is the country as a whole or even a larger
area, such as the Nordpool region. Several studies(e.g. Kartha et al. 2002, Holttinen and Tuhkanen
2002, Ellis et al. 2001, OECD/IEA 2000) suggestthat average emission intensity often badly reflects
the actual impact on the electricity system, as
power plants are typically dispatched according totheir variable production costs. Variable production costs are low for GHG-free nuclear and hydropower. Therefore, emission intensity should be estimated on a marginal basis. National scenarios canbe used ex-ante and the emission intensity can berevised during the project lifetime.

projects to conserve heat. The impact would belarger, if electricity generation from a CHP plant
was not affected and the fuel used in heat production was emission intensive. In electricity projects,
the impact would be significant, if marginal emission intensity was applied.

In the case of combined heat and power generation,
the two previous cases must be combined. It is essential to take into account the potential impact ofheat saving on electricity production of a CHP plant.

Estimation of emission reductions is not always
straightforward. Thus the integration of emission
reductions in ESCO projects would include some
additional transaction costs. Additional activities
needed in the case of an emissions trading system(either a cap-and-trade or a baseline-and-credit
system1) include the specification of the projectboundary, emission reduction, emission intensities, possible updating of the baseline, monitoringand possible validation, verification and reporting.

3 Integration of emission reductions
into projects
Emission reductions can have a role in ESCO projects only if they have a value. The value for emission reductions can arise in several ways depending on the policy instruments used in national
and/or international climate policy. For example,
taxation based on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
would increase the feasibility of energy efficiency
projects in which the energy saved is CO2 -intensive. However, since the tax is included in the priceof energy, the integration of the corresponding
benefit would not set any additional requirements
on ESCO projects.
In the case of an emissions trading system, the situation would be more complicated. An emissions
trading system would create a market price for
CO 2 -reductions. The emission reductions of
ESCO projects would need to be taken into accountby the project parties themselves.
Recent estimates (e.g. Natsource and GCSI 2002)
on the evolving market price for emission reductions are lower than those immediately after the
Kyoto Protocol. This can be traced, e.g., to the results of COP7 in Marrakesh in November 2001 andthe decision of the United States not to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol. A value of 5 €/tCO2 would nothave a significant effect on the viability of ESCO

1

Project boundary
If only direct emissions of a site are included in therelevant emissions, the project boundary will not
be a considerable problem. In baseline-and-credit
systems, however, indirect emissions, such as
those from purchased energy, are typically also
within the project boundary. This makes the decision more difficult.
Calculation of emission reduction anddetermination of emission intensities
The calculation of emission reduction requires information on the energy saved and its emission intensity. The procedures to determine the amount ofenergy saved are conventionally defined in ESCO
projects.
Estimation of emission intensity requires among
other things an analysis of dispatch order and fuelsused. As they may change over time, the emission
intensity may have to be modified respectively.
The estimation of emission intensity is more difficult, if indirect emissions are relevant. The intensity should in many cases be calculated project-specifically. Particularly complicated would
be the calculation of emission intensity in the caseof indirect emissions from a district heating net-

Cap-and-trade -emissions trading refers to a system, where a cap is set for the emissions of each entity participating thescheme. The entities are entitled to trade emission allowances that they receive in an initial allocation with each other inorder to reach their cap. In a baseline-and-credit-system, entities are rewarded with credits for specific activities toreduce emissions in comparison to a baseline, a scenario without the project.

71

work including several boilers and fuels or fromcombined heat and power production.
Possible revision procedure of the baseline
The baseline is determined based on several assumptions concerning e.g. fuel prices, technological development, and political and legislativechanges. These may change significantly during
the project lifetime. To allow a more informed estimation of the baseline, it can be revised if predefined changes occur. Revision is the more important, the more complex the energy system in whichenergy is saved and the longer the contract period
in the ESCO project.
Monitoring procedure
The monitoring procedure of emission reductions
must be defined in the planning phase of an ESCO
project. In a cap-and trade system the monitoring
can be arranged between the ESCO and its customer, since the regulator is not interested in emission reductions but emission allowances. In a baseline-and-credit system, however, monitoring of theemission reductions must be arranged according to
the requirements of the regulator.
Monitoring of emission reductions
After the implementation phase of an ESCO project the energy saving indicators are monitored andenergy savings calculated in a way decided by the
ESCO and its client. If emission reductions werealso included in the contract, some additional indicators would have to be monitored.
Possible validation, verification and reportingof emission reductions
In a baseline-and-credit system, emission reductions are crucial for the regulator, which may imply
additional validation, verification and reporting requirements. This would obviously increase thecosts of an ESCO project including emission reductions. In a cap-and-trade emissions trading system these steps would not be necessary.

4 GHG abatement potential with
ESCOs in industry
The potential of ESCOs to reduce GHG emissions
in the Finnish industry was explored in phases.
First, the market potential of ESCOs in terms of72

savings in heat and electricity consumption peryear was identified. Second, the emission intensities of electricity and heat on the average were estimated. The GHG abatement potential was obtained by multiplying the outputs of the two steps.
4.1 ESCO market potential
The market potential of ESCOs in Finland is part of
the general economic energy saving potential. In
this study, the market potential was estimated in
the Finnish industry. The data was derived fromtwo sources: annual reports related to the Voluntary Agreement on Energy Conservation and energy auditing information. The Finnish Ministry ofTrade and Industry made the Voluntary Agreement
on Energy Conservation with the Confederation of
Finnish Industry and Employers in 1997. Companies that join the scheme will have to report theirenergy consumption, production, steps taken to
improve energy efficiency, and the remaining energy efficiency potential annually. In the end of theyear 2000, 91 companies representing 85% of theenergy consumption in the Finnish industry had
joined the scheme.
The Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry has
supported energy auditing since 1992. In total 747
industrial sites were audited during 1992–2000.
Currently, a significant part of the audits is made insites that have signed the energy saving contract.
The technical potential of ESCO projects is restricted by: i) monitoring opportunities of the energy efficiency improvement and ii) the reliabilityof the pre-feasibility data. The economic potential
is restricted by the i) the estimation of energy savings obtained, ii) investment size and iii) the viability of the project.
In this study the market potential of ESCO projects
was differentiated from the general energy saving
potential by the following restrictions:• the estimated pay-back time is 2–6 years. If the
pay-back time is less than 2 years, companies
are likely to make the investment by themselves.
If the pay-back time is more than 6 years, the investment is seldom attractive for ESCOs.

Table 1. The market potential of ESCO-projects in the Finnish industry.
Heat

Energy saving potential

Electricity[GWh/a][1 000 000 €/a]

[GWh/a][1 000 000 €/a]

1 890

21

340

11

Investment potential [€]• the minimum investment is 50 000 €. If the investment size is smaller, the transaction costs
from performance contracting may become excessively high compared to the investment.
It was estimated that the resulting investment potential was 200 million € (Table 1). The potential to saveheat is remarkably larger than that of electricity.
The GHG abatement potential was derived from
Table 1 and the emission intensities of energy
saved. The emission intensities were estimatedseparately for electricity and heat.
4.2 Emission intensity of electricity
The emission intensity of electricity is not definedwithin the local context of a project, but within thewhole electricity network. The emission intensity
can broadly be estimated in two ways: based on average production or based on marginal production.
In addition, demand-side projects should also take
into account transmission and distribution (T&D)
losses (Kartha et al. 2002), which on the average
accounted for 3.5% in Finland in 2000 (Statistics
Finland 2001).
In Finland, the average CO2 emission intensity ofelectricity generated is fairly low in an international comparison: 160 g/kWhe in 2000 (Finergy2002). The average emission intensity in Finlandof electricity used in the country taking into account the T&D loss was even lower as Finland is a
net importer of power: 141 g/kWh in 2000.
However, the marginal emission intensity is higher
due to the remarkable share of nuclear and hydropower production that are hardly affected by marginal changes in electricity demand. In the Nordic

200 000 000

market it is also known that variable production
costs of electricity in cogeneration (CHP) plants
are lower than those of conventional condensing
power plants. Further, electricity imports in Finland are mainly based on either the availability ofcompetitive hydro power (imports from Norway
and Sweden) or fixed contracts that are inelastic toprice deviations (imports from Russia).
In this study, the marginal emission intensity was
therefore estimated based on the production of
conventional condensing power. During 1995–
2000 around 80% of the fuels used in these power
plants were GHG emission intensive coal and peat.
Therefore the average emission intensity of condensing power in Finland has been 810 g/kWheduring 1995–2000 with a standard deviation of
only 3%.
4.3 Emission intensity of heat
The emission intensity of heat was estimated on anaverage basis, as the data available did not allow asite-specific, bottom-up analysis. The average intensity was explored from the Finnish Energy Statistics (Statistics Finland 2001). Black liquor, natural
gas and wood fuels generate around 60% of energy in
the Finnish industry (Figure 1). In cogeneration,
which is widely used in Finland, the relative share ofwood-based fuels and natural gas is even higher:
around 80%. Cuts in heat consumption thus often
reduce low emission electricity generation thatmust be replaced by emission-intensive marginal
power plants, i.e. condensing power. This effectsignificantly reduces the emission cuts that areachieved through heat savings in the Finnish industry.
73

Figure 1. Fuel consumption in the Finnish industry 1995–2000 (Statistics Finland 2001).

60

tCO2/TJ heat

50
40

without CHP adjustment

30

CHP-adjusted, average
electricity

20

CHP-adjusted, marginal
electricity

10
0
1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Figure 2. Development of emission intensity for heat in the Finnish industry 1995–2000.

The effect is illustrated in Figure 2. The CHP-adjusted emission intensity of heat is much lower
than the unadjusted rate, when the adjustment ismade using the marginal emission intensity forelectricity. In 2000, the CHP-adjusted emission intensity of heat was 40 tCO2/TJ with average electricity and 15 tCO2/TJ with marginal electricity.
Emission intensities for heat vary significantly
across industries. For example, pulp and paper industry benefits from a high proportion of woodbased fuels and cogeneration.
74

4.4 Results
The GHG abatement potential of ESCOs in the
Finnish industry is estimated at 0.3–0.4 Mt CO2.
This is around 8–13% of the total GHG abatement
potential through energy efficiency improvementin Finland, which has been estimated at 3–4 Mt
CO2 (MTI 2001).

Table 2. Estimated GHG abatement potential of ESCOs in the Finnish industry.
Marketpotential

Emission intensity

GHG abatement potential

Electricity,
average

Electricity,
marginal

Electricity,
average

Electricity,
marginal

GWhtCO2/GWh

tCO2/GWh

tCO2

tCO2

Electricity

340

141

843

50 000290 000

Heat

1890

144

54

270 000

100 000

320 000

390 000

TOTAL

5 Discussion

6 Conclusions

The results of the project show that industrial
ESCO projects in Finland to cut the consumptionof electricity and those to cut the consumption ofheat are in a very different position, when it comesto GHG abatement. Any conclusions on the GHG
abatement potential depend decisively on the approach to the emission intensity of electricity. If themarginal approach is used as suggested here, someprojects to cut heat consumption may even increase GHG emissions in Finland.

6.1 Principles for determination ofemission reductions

The results presented here are not based on a bottom-up analysis. It has also been assumed that allheat demand cuts in association with CHP will reduce electricity production from CHP.
In the current regulatory environment in Finland,
there is little incentive for the private sector to trade
emission reductions. The regulatory environment
may, however, change e.g. due to an internationalemissions trading scheme. Emission reductions do
not seem to emerge as a driving force for most
ESCO projects. However, they can generate someextra cash flow, if transaction costs remain at a reasonable level compared to benefits. In individual
projects the impact of emission reductions may besignificant.
In the following, some specific recommendations
for authorities, industrial federations and companies are given for actions to support energy efficiency improvement in Finland.

In order to quantify the emission reductions in
ESCO projects, the most important additional activity would be the estimation of emission intensity, which is not always trivial. The aim should beto standardise the calculation procedures as far as
possible. Standardisation is in many cases difficult,but could be done at least concerning (1) the project boundary, (2) determination of the emission
intensity, and (3) updating the baseline. Heat saving projects in association with separate heat production, heat saving projects in CHP productionand electricity saving projects need differing methods. It would be important to give guidance to theemission intensity of electricity in particular. Initially only carbon dioxide should be included in theanalysis to keep the procedures simple enough.
6.2 Extension of the “ESCO-concept”
to cover GHG emissions
In Finland the “ESCO-concept” should be further
developed so that it would take into account potential changes in the regulatory framework concerning greenhouse gas emissions. Emission reductions seem to become only a complementary incentive for ESCO activities, while benefits fromthe savings in energy costs remain the primary incentive. Therefore, the additional transaction costs
75

of including emission reductions into the ESCO
concept should be kept low. This would support inparticular small ESCO projects.
6.3 Training and dissemination
activities
In the ESCO business, a general problem has been
the novelty of the business idea. Although clear
benefits are offered, the customers may not be interested in ESCO projects since they are not familiar with the business logic. The same problem
would probably exist in case of an emissions trading system. If an emissions trading system were introduced, a number of training and information
services would be offered by industrial federations, educational organisations, consultancy companies etc. However, also public training and information dissemination among the potential ESCO
customers would be needed, especially in the initial phase of the system.

6.6 Guidance for the determination of
CO2-intensity of heat
Heat producers could be encouraged to improvetheir environmental reporting to include GHG
emission intensities. For example in the case of
district heating, the customers would be more capable of estimating the emission intensity of the
saved heat, if different producers reported theiremission intensities in a given format for certain
periods. This reporting, however, should be developed in cooperation with the authorities and industry federations.
Publications and reports made under
the projectLaurikka, H., Kuusinen, K., Hämekoski, K., Lumijärvi.,
A., Siitonen, S., Koski, P., Otterström, T. 2002.
CO2ESCO – Energiapalveluyhtiöiden (ESCO) toiminta ilmastonmuutoksen rajoittamisen näkökulmasta. Motiva Oy. (In Finnish)

6.4 Development of skills and strategy

References

Both ESCOs and their customers should acquire
the needed skills to deal with emission reductions.
They should be prepared for possible changes in
the regulatory framework of ESCO projects andselect a strategy to handle emission reductions in
ESCO contracts.

Ellis, J., Missfeldt, F., Bosi, M., Painuly, J. 2001. Possibilities for Standardised Baselines for JI and theCDM, Chairman’s Recommendations and Workshop Report for the UNEP/OECD/IEA Workshop
on Baseline Methodologies. May 7-9, Roskilde,
Denmark.

6.5 Development of company
procurement policies
ESCO projects have sometimes faced problems
with the procurement policies of companies. These
have in some cases complicated energy performance contracts. The potential customers should
be made aware of the issue and, when necessary,
review their procurement procedures (included
e.g. in quality and environmental management systems). Authorities and industrial federations
should address procurement policies in their information dissemination and training activities.

Holttinen, H., Tuhkanen, S. 2002. The effect of wind
power on CO2 abatement in the Nordic electricity
market. VTT Processes, Energy Systems. Espoo.
Kartha, S., Lazarus, M., Bosi, M. 2002. Practical Recommendations for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Projects in the Electric Power Sector, OECD/IEA Information Paper, Paris.
MTI 2001. National Climate Strategy. Ministry of Tradeand Industry, Finland 2001.
Natsource LLC, GCSI 2002. Assessment of Private Sector Anticipatory Response to Greenhouse Gas Market Development Conducted for Environment Canada. Final Analysis.
OECD/IEA 2000. Emission baselines – estimating the
unknown. Paris.
Statistics Finland 2001. Energy Statistics. Energy 2001:2.
Helsinki.

76

Development Scenarios of High-Efficiency Power Plant Technologies
in Centralised Electricity and Heat Production and their Impacts on
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Korkean hyötysuhteen voimalaitostekniikoiden kehitysnäkymät ja
vaikutukset kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin

Antti Harmoinen, Jouko Heikkilä,
Katri Nyberg, Markku Raiko
Fortum Engineering Oy, Vantaa, Finland
Fortum Engineering Oy, Vantaa
Jouko Hepola, Esa Kurkela
VTT Processes, Espoo, Finland
VTT Prosessit, Espoo
Abstract
In the co-project of Fortum Engineering Ltd and
VTT, new centralised fossil and renewable energy
technologies and their development scenarios
were studied. Also, the effect of these new technologies on the greenhouse gas emissions and the applicability of the new technologies into the Finnish
energy system were considered.
In this technical report, both the study prepared by
Fortum and the study prepared by VTT have been
considered. Power plant technologies studied by
Fortum are coal, natural gas combined and motor
power plants. Also, the development scenarios ofprocess industry and CHP technologies have been
described by Fortum. VTT’s study dealt with advanced combustion and gasification technologies,
co-production of energy, fuels and chemicals, andhigh-temperature fuel cells and hybrid fuel cellsystems.
The studied coal power plant technologies are socalled ultra super critical (USC) plants, which havevery high steam values. USC plants have been utilised for 40 years, but they have not yet played asubstantial role in power generation. Currently,
new materials and the need to cut the greenhousegas emissions have increased the interest in USC
plants. The main challenges in the development of
the USC plants are in the material technologies.

Also, water chemistry, construction technology
and innovative planning are important in the development of the USC plants.
Natural gas combined power plants are commonly
utilised in the combined heat and power (CHP)
production. Combined technology is effective, hasquite low investment costs and is fast to construct.
The gas turbine processes are typically fuel-efficient and have low specific emissions. The development of materials and cooling technologies has
made the high efficiencies possible.
Motor power plants have been developed from theship engines. Motor power plants are already commonly used power technology. Still, the efficiencyof the motor power plants will be increased by developing the motor process and by adding the combined cycle into the process.
In the process industry, the difference between the
power-to-heat ratio of CHP generation and the energy use of the process creates both technical andcommercial development potential in the power
generation. The commercial potential has not earlier been utilised, when the planning basis has been
only the energy demand of the process. The power
generation has been rarely developed and optimised as a separate business activity in the processindustry. New ideas, optimal utilisation of technology and the new planning methods make it possible to increase the power generation in the processindustry, which is very attractive, because of thehigh efficiency of the CHP generation.
The potential and the market outlook of pressurised fluidised-bed combustion have declined, i.a.,due to the good competitivity of natural gas combined-cycle technology, tightening emission standards, and the development outlook for gasifica77

tion combined-cycle technology. Development of
a combined-cycle power plant process based onpressurised pulverised combustion of coal is still at
an initial stage. The oxygen based IGCC plants inthe world have so far been demonstration plants.
The IGCC technology is expected to find commercial implementation first in residual oil gasification applications integrated to oil refineries andthen in coal powered condensed power plants. In
addition, one biomass-based IGCC plant has been
constructed. This process is so called simplified
IGCC, utilising pressurised air blown gasificationand hot gas cleaning. The test trials of this plant
were completed in 1999. The process is technicallyfeasible also for large-scale demonstration. Gasification technology has also been developed forblack liquor. The ChemRec black liquor gasification process is technically the most advanced process at the moment. The atmospheric process has
been demonstrated and the pressurised processdemonstration is about to start in Sweden and in
USA. In utilising biomass fuels or black liquor, the
IGCC process offers the possibility to significantly
increase the ratio of electrical power to thermal
power with combined cycle.
Catalytic combustion is expected to be commercialised first in small natural gas fuelled gas turbines and gasoline-fuelled microturbines. Catalytic combustion can also offer an alternative forthe elimination of fuel-bound NOx in the combustion of biomass gasification gas.
Gasification gas or pyrolysis oil produced from solid
fuels can also be used in engine power plants. Obstacles to commercialisation in small power plant applications have been due to technical problems, especially those related to gas cleaning and oil quality.
Synthesis gas produced by gasification technology
can be used for producing different gaseous or liquid
fuels and chemicals and for energy production. In a
flexible use of feedstocks and products, this co-production method offers a significantly more feasible
alternative to present energy production plants. However, there is rather little experience available fromlarge-scale production of biomass products, based on
oxygen gasification. In Finland wood-processing industries and also other process industries could besuitable sites for co-production.
78

High-temperature fuel cells and hybrid fuel cellsystems will be available technologies in power
and CHP production of 0.2–10 MW size range
within the next ten years, while large scale fuel cell
power plants will not be constructed until in the
more remote future. The first gasification applications will probably employ molten carbonate fuelcells. These cells have already been tested withgasification gas. The operation temperature ofthese cells is also more suitable than that of thesolid oxide cells.
Tiivistelmä
Fortum Engineering Oy:n ja VTT:n yhteisprojektissa selvitettiin fossiilisiin ja uusiutuviin polttoaineisiin perustuvan keskitetyn energiantuotannon
uutta tekniikkaa ja kehitysnäkymiä. Samalla arvioitiin uuden tekniikan vaikutusta kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin ja sovellettavuutta Suomen energiantuotantoon.
Raportissa on on tarkasteltu sekä Fortumin että
VTT työn osuutta. Fortumin selvityksen kohteena
ovat olleet hiili-, maakaasukombi- ja moottorivoimalaitostekniikat. Lisäksi Fortumissa on tarkasteltu prosessiteollisuuden kehitysnäkymiä ja vaikutuksia CHP-tekniikkaan. VTT:n osuudessa on tarkasteltu kaasutus- ja polttotekniikoiden kehitysnäkymiä, korkealämpötilapolttokennoja ja hybridivoimalaitoksia sekä yhdistettyjä kemikaalien,polttoaineiden ja energiantuotannon konsepteja.
Hiilivoimalaitostekniikoista on tarkasteltu ns. USClaitoksia (Ultra Super Critical) eli laitoksia, joiden
höyrynarvot ovat hyvin korkeita. USC-laitoksia on
ollut käytössä jo noin 40 vuotta, mutta aluksi näiden laitosten rooli energiantuotannosa jäi vähäiseksi. Uudet paremmat materiaalit ja tarve rajoittaa kasvihuonekaasupäästöjä ovat lisänneet mielenkiintoa USC-laitoksiin. USC-laitosten suurimmat haasteet ovat edelleen materiaalipuolella,mutta myös vesikemian hallinta, valmistustekniikka ja innovatiivinen suunnittelu ovat tärkeitä
USC-laitosten kehittämisessä.
Maakaasukombitekniikka on yleistä erityisesti yhdistetyssä sähkön ja lämmöntuotannossa (CHP).
Kombitekniikka on tehokas, investointikustannuk-siltaan edullinen ja laitostyyppinä nopea rakentaa.
Kaasuturbiiniprosessit ovat luonnostaan kyvykkäitä suhteellisen hyvään polttoainetalouteen ja alhaisiin päästöihin. Korkeiden hyötysuhteiden
taustalla ovat materiaali- ja jäähdytystekniikan kehittyminen.
Moottorivoimalaitosten moottorit ovat alunperin
laivamoottoreista kehitettyjä moottoreita. Moottorivoimalaitokset ovat maailmalla yleisesti käytössä olevaa voimalaitostekniikkaa. Moottorivoimalaitosten hyötysuhdetta voidaan edelleen nostaa
sekä kehittämällä moottoriprosessia että kombikytkennällä.
Rakennusasteiden eriparisuus prosessiteollisuuden CHP-tuotannossa ja tehtaan kulutuksessa sisältää sekä teknisen että liiketoiminnallisen kehityspotetiaalin. Liiketoiminnallinen potentiaali on
aiemmin jäänyt Suomessa hyödyntämättä, kun
voimalaitoksen suunnitelun lähtökohtana on pidetty tehtaan omaa energiantarvetta. Tekninen kehityspotentiaali näkyy siinä, että voimalaitosta on
harvoin kehitetty ja optimoitu integaattituotannon
lisäksi itsenäisenä energialiiketoimintakokonaisuutena. Uudet ajattelumallit, teknologian optimaalinen hyödyntäminen ja uudet suunnittelumenetelmät mahdollistavat prosessiteollisuuden
sähköntuotannon kasvattamisen, mikä on erityisen
houkuttelevaa CHP-tuotannossa sen korkean hyötysuhteen vuoksi.
Paineistetun leijukerrospolton potentiaali ja markkinanäkymät ovat heikentyneet mm. perinteisen
höyryvoimalaitoksen kehityksen, maakaasukombitekniikan hyvän kilpailukyvyn, kiristyneiden
päästönormien sekä kaasutuskombitekniikan kehitysnäkymien myötä. Hiilen paineistettuun pölypolttoon perustuva kombivoimalaitosprosessin kehitys on vielä alkuvaiheessa. Toistaiseksi maailmalla rakennetut happikaasutukseen perustuvat
IGCC-laitokset ovat olleet luonteeltaan demonstraatiolaitoksia. IGCC-tekniikan oletetaan kaupallistuvan ensin öljynjalostamoihin integroiduissa
pohjaöljyn kaasutussovelluksissa ja sitten kivihiilikäyttöisissä lauhdevoimalaitoksissa. Ilmakaasutukseen perustuvalla, ns. yksinkertaistetulla kaasutuskombiprosessitekniikalla on toistaiseksi to-teutettu vain yksi koelaitos. Teknisesti prosessi on
valmis myös suuren kokoluokan demonstrointiin.
Kehitteillä olevista mustalipeän kaasutusprosesseista teknisesti pisimmällä on Chemrec-prosessi.
Ilmanpaineinen prosessi on demonstroitu ja paineistetun prosessin demonstrointi on käynnistymässä sekä Ruotsissa että Yhdysvalloissa.
Katalyyttisen polton odotetaan kaupallistuvan aluksi maakaasua käyttävissä pienissä kaasuturbiineissa ja bensiiniä käyttävissä mikroturbiineissa. Katalyyttinen poltto voi olla vaihtoehto myös biomassan kaasutuskaasun poltossa syntyvän polttoaineperäisen NOx:n eliminoimisessa.
Moottorivoimalaitoksissa voidaan käyttää myös
kiinteistä polttoaineista valmistettua kaasutuskaasua tai pyrolyysiöljyä. Tekniikan kaupallistumisen esteenä pienvoimalasovelluksissa ovat olleet tekniset ongelmat, erityisesti kaasun puhdistukseen ja öljyn laatuun liittyvät kysymykset.
Kaasutustekniikalla tuotettua synteesikaasua voidaan käyttää erilaisten kaasumaisten tai nestemäisten polttoaineiden ja kemikaalien valmistamiseen sekä energiantuotantoon. Hyödyntämällä lähtöaineiden ja tuotteiden joustavan käytön yhteistuotanto tarjoaa huomattavasti taloudellisemman
vaihtoehdon nykyisiin, pelkkää energiaa tuottaviin
laitoksiin verrattuna. Happikaasutukseen perustuvasta biojalosteiden tuotannosta on kuitenkin suuressa kokoluokassa vähän kokemuksia. Suomessa
puunjalostusteollisuuden ohella myös muu prosessiteollisuus voisi olla sopiva sijoituspaikka yhteistuotannolle.
Korkealämpötilapolttokennot ja polttokennohybridit ovat 0,2–10 MW:n kokoluokan sähköntuotannossa ja yhdistetyssä sähkön ja lämmöntuotannossa käyttökelpoisia teknologioita jo kymmenen
vuoden kuluessa. Suurten polttokennovoimaloiden toteuttamisen aika on kauempana tulevaisuudessa. Ensimmäiset kaasutuskaasusovellukset toteutettaneen sulakarbonaattikennoilla. Näillä on josaatu kokemuksia kaasutuskaasun käytöstä. Kennojen toimintalämpötila on myös sopivampi nykyisiin kiinteäoksidikennoihin verrattuna.

79

1 Introduction
This project has been a co-project between Fortum
Engineering Ltd and VTT. The object of the project has been to study the current situation and thefuture scenarios of the high efficiency power planttechnologies. Also, the applicability of these technologies into the Finnish energy system has been
considered. The focus of the study has been on the
power plants larger than 1 MW. The technologies
considered by Fortum have been:• coal power plants• natural gas combined cycle power plants• motor power plants.
Also, the development scenarios of process industry and CHP technologies have been studied by
Fortum. The technologies studied by VTT havebeen:
• advanced combustion and gasification
technologies• co-production of energy, fuels and chemicals• high-temperature fuel cells and hybrid fuel cellsystems.
The information has been acquired by literature reviews, attending conferences and through own
projects. Also, contact networks have been utilised, together with direct connections to the power
plant manufacturers. The information collected forthe project included company visits to the Puertallano coal gasification power plant, to the fuelcell research in the MTU-Fridrichshafen andJülich and to the Siemens-Westinghouse (fuel cells
and gas turbines).

2 Coal power plant technology
The studied power plants are so called ultra super
critical (USC) plants. This means that the steam
values of the power plant are very high (pressure >~250 bar, temperature > 560°C).
USC technology has been utilised for 40 years. In
the beginning, the material problems caused a bad
reputation on USC technology, and these plants
have not yet been in a substantial role in power generation. The development of material technology
80

and the need to cut the greenhouse gas emissions
have increased the interest in USC technology.
The biggest challenges of the current generation of
the USC plants are still in the material technology.
Also, water chemistry, construction technology
and innovative planning are important in the development of the USC technology.
There are several research projects all over theworld developing USC technology. The leading
country in the USC technology is Japan. In Japan,
the development of USC materials began earlier
than in other countries. In Europe, Denmark has
constructed the newest USC plants.
2.1 European USC projectFortum’s study is mainly based on the European
USC project (advanced PF power plant), which has
been supported by EU, and about 40 companies are
participating the project. The EU project is coordinated by Denmark. One goal of the EU projectis to demonstrate a very high steam value plant in2010. The efficiency of the plant will be about
50–55%.
The general goal of the project is also to sustain therole of the coal in the future. The overall performance (energetic, economic) of the plant will backup the image of the coal and create a more favourable political climate for coal use.
The chosen burning technology is pulverized coalburning. Also, the multi-fuel boilers were considered, but they were not included in the project.
There are two plant sizes to be developed: 400 and
900 MWe. The plant is so called base load condensation power plant, but also the combined heat andpower plant option is under discussion. The size ofthe demonstration plant will be 400 MWe.
In the USC plants, the conventional steam line construction would increase the cost share of the steamlines from 3% to 15% of total investment, becauseof the more expensive special materials. This has
motivated many boiler constructors to develop theboiler layout by minimizing the length of the most

Table 1. Efficiency and cost estimates for USC technology in 2002, 2010 and 2030.
Technology

Size, MWe

Investment, € / kWe

Net efficiency, %
2002

2010

2030

2002

2010

2030

400

44

50

56

1000

960

920

900

44

50

56

900

840

790

critical steam lines. Also, the heat transfer of theboiler has been improved during the project.

become common especially in the natural gas fired
CHP plants.

New constructions for preheating of feed water
have been tested during the project. A new coolingsystem of steam turbine and the division of thehigh-pressure turbine have also been innovationsin the development of steam turbine plant.

Compared with the conventional power plants,high efficiency and high power-to-heat ratio in
CHP production are typical characteristics for
combined cycle power plants. Also, power adjustment is easy and fast start-ups are possible ingas-combined plants. In separate power production, efficiencies of 50–54% have been achieved
with gas combined cycle power plants. Currently,
the highest efficiencies are even 55–60% in new
combined cycle plants with large-scale gas turbines. In district heating CHP plants, typicalpower-to-heat ratios are 1–1.15. Gas combined
technology has relatively low investment costs,
and these plants are also fast to construct.

The project includes also testing of new materials
in laboratory conditions. In the beginning of 2002,
new sub-projects for testing the materials in realconditions were started. These projects consist ofplanning and construction of components, andpreparation of the test site. The panning of tests for
all critical components has been started. All these
sub-projects aim to reach the point of real condition tests three years before the construction ofdemonstration plant. New materials will make possible thinner walls, which implies better heat transfer. Also, expensive materials will be saved.
The investment costs of USC plants have beenstudied during the project. The study showed that
the USC plant will be cost-effective, but the variation in the price estimations of coal increases theuncertainty of the cost study.

3 Natural gas combined cycle
power plants
Combined cycle power plant is based on so-called
combined cycle process, which in this case has
been defined as a combined process of a gas turbine and a steam turbine. The combined cycle process could be used in a condensation power plant orin a CHP plant, and the number of gas turbines
could be one or more. The combined process has

Development of gas turbines has been fast in recent
decades. In many cases, gas turbine processes havehigher power density, better fuel efficiency andlower specific emissions than competing power
technologies. The development of cooling and material technology of turbine parts has been the key
to the increased efficiency of gas turbine process.
A common view is that the development of combined cycle power plants will be continuous at leastten years. Some of the trends behind the development of gas combined cycle power plants are forexample the goal to increase turbine inlet temperature, development of cooling technology, development of new materials, continuously improved
simulation technology and expected commercial
introduction of super critical steam values in combined cycle power plants. It has been estimated thatan efficiency of 65% could be achieved by 2010 in
the combined cycle plants equipped with largescale gas turbines.
81

The specific investment cost of gas combined cycle
plants decreases significantly as the size of thepower plant increases. For the small-scale gas
combined plants, the specific investment is currently about 800 €/kW, while the specific investment of the large power plants is about 300 €/kW.
Therefore, the research and development of combined cycle plants will probably focus on largescale plants in the future.
In Finland, the combined cycle technology has
been used in industrial and district heating CHP
plants. The number of undeveloped sufficiently
large heat loads by the natural gas lines currently
limits the construction of new combined cycle
plants in Finland. On the other hand, refurbishmentof old plants could be a way to increase the utilisation of combined cycle processes.

4 Motor power plants
Motor power plants have been developed from theship engine technology. Motor power plants could
be divided into two groups according to the technology: otto-cycle and diesel engines. Fuels usedin the motors are liquid or gaseous.
Currently, the best net electrical efficiencies of the
motor power plants are 45%. In the combined heatand power production, the net efficiency of 92%
could be achieved in the motor power plants.
Optimisation of the burning process can be further
developed in the motor processes. The increase of
the combustion pressure improves the efficiency ofthe motor. On the other hand, the increase of the

combustion pressure raises the price of the motor
by increasing the need of more expensive materials.
The combined cycle process has not been includedin the motor power plants, because the temperatureof the flue gases is relatively low in the current motor power plants. By increasing the combustion
temperature and decreasing the cooling of the motor the flue gas temperature could be raised to alevel that enables the combined cycle process inthe motor process. On the other hand, the increaseof the combustion temperature leads typically tohigher NOx emissions, which also tends to increase
the investment costs of the power plant.
Emission limits and higher availability requirements of customers have an influence on the introduction of new motor power plant technology. A
simplified conclusion of the development process
could be to find the balance between efficiency improvement, lower specific emissions and guaranteed availability of power plant.
The efficiency of the motor power plants could be
increased 3–5% by developing the motor process,this increases the total efficiency to the level of
50%. By including the combined cycle process
into the motor power plants, the efficiency level of
60% will be targeted during the current decade.
The specific investment cost of the motor power
plants is 500–800 €/kW with the current construction of the motor power plants. The specific investment depends on the technology and the size of theplant. It has been estimated that the specific investment with the current constructions may decrease

Table 2. Estimated efficiency targets of motors in the power generation.
Technology
Simple cycle (plain engine)
Simple cycle engine with STID

2015

2030

47–49%

53–55%

55–56%

58–60%

61–63%

61–63%

63–65%*)

Combined cycle
Combined cycle (hot combustion)*) STID = Steam Direct Injection Diesel

82

2002

53%

in the near future. Another scenario is that the tendency to cut the specific emissions of the motor
power plants will stabilise the costs on the current
levels.
In Finland, only a minor share of the energy is produced in the motor power plants. Also in the future,
it is not probable that motor power plants would
have significance in centralised energy production.
In small-scale decentralised combined heat andpower production, the motors will be a competitive
alternative to the boiler and gas turbine technologies.

5 Development scenarios ofprocess industry and CHP
technologies

mercial potential has not been utilised in manycases, when the planning of the CHP plant has been
purely based on the energy demand of the factory.
Technical potential exists, because power generation has been rarely developed and optimised as aseparate business unit.
It is possible to increase the power-to-heat ratio of
the process industry by power plant engineering.
The potential to increase the power generation in
the CHP plants of process industry is 5–20%. Also,
the current technology for storing the steam makes
possible the higher power-to-heat ratios in theplanning phase of the CHP plants. In the case ofvery wet fuels, the steam drying technology could
increase the power production per dry matter content of fuel.

Finland is one of the leading countries in relation to
the population among the countries utilising the
combined heat and power production. Advantageof the CHP production is high energy efficiency.
The CHP process have been utilised both in district
heating and in the process industry.

The development of process planning has made it
possible to cut the heat demand of processes considerably. The bottleneck in the optimisation oflarge integrals has often been the division of theplanning into different sectors without communication of each other. Also, the utilisation of wastes
as an energy resource creates potential for the integration of processes.

The difference between the power-to-heat ratio of
the CHP plant and the demand of process createsan optimisation potential. Commercial development potential exists, when the power-to-heat ratioof the factory is lower than the optimal or maximal
power-to-heat ratio of the CHP plant. This com-

The development of the drying process creates significant potential to cut the energy demand of theforest industry. The efficiency of the drying process could be increased by replacing indirect steam
drying processes with technologies like infrared
drying or airborne web drying. Also, drying tech-

Table 3. Estimates of power generation potential in process industry.
Technology

Potential

Demand ofbiomass(consumption
ratio)

Investment,k€/kWTransition
periodHeat saving

10%

–1

0–10005 years

Biomass based condensation power

?%

3

1500

5 years

Exergy oprtimisation of steam demand20%

1

0–1000

5–10 years

Power-to-heat ratio

5–10%

0–1

0–1000

5–10 years

Drying

10–15%

01000

5–10 years

Gasification

300%

1

2000

10–30 years

83nologies avoiding the phase transition of water inthe drying process have been developed, for example technologies utilising mechanical pressure or
impulses of steam.
There are several technological methods to increase the power generation of process industry.
Some of these methods are fast to implement,
whereas some of the methods will require a longer
period to be in common utilisation. Some of thetechnologies have almost zero investment costs(for example some energy saving methods). Anyway, many methods have quite similar specific investments as the conventional power capacity.

6 Efficiency and CO2-emissions
In fossil fuel based power generation, the most important greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. SpecificCO2-emissions of power generation could be reduced by improving the efficiency. CO2-emissionsof power generation as a function of efficiency
have been presented in figure 1.

7 Advanced combustion andgasification
The potential and the market outlooks for pressurised fluidised bed combustion (PFBC) of the first
generation have weakened. This trend is due to improvements in the efficiency of conventional steam
power plants, increased use and good competitiveness of natural gas combined-cycle technology,
more stringent emission standards that require avery efficient removal of sulphur and nitrogen oxides, and superior chances of gasification combined-cycle technology to meet the efficiency,
emission and CO2 removal targets set for futurecoal-fired power plants. In addition to fluidised
bed combustion, a combined-cycle power plant
process based on pressurised combustion of pulverised coal will also be developed. However, thedevelopment of this process is clearly at a more
early stage than that of fluidised bed technology.
The IGCC plants constructed so far are based on
oxygen gasification and are demonstration plants.
IGCC technology is expected to be commercial-

1 000

750

Co2 emission, g/kWhe

EU-USC coal power plant
Coal
Heavy fuel oil
Natural gas

Current heavy fuel oil
motor power plant500
current natural gas
combined cycle power
plant
250

0
30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70 %

Efficiency

Figure 1. CO2 emissions of power generation with different fuels and emission levels of some power
technologies.

84

ised first in residual oil gasification applications integrated to oil refineries and then in coal-fired condensed power plants. The time schedule of commercialisation is primarily dependent on commercial competitiveness with conventional steam
power plants and natural gas combined cycles. In
Finland, the possible application of this technology may be limited to the construction of residual
oil gasification plants to oil refineries. These plants
could at least partly be constructed as combined
power and process steam production plants.

gas turbine process. Catalytic combustion has beenassessed to be the best and most reasonable alternative, when the level of NOx emissions shall beless than 5 ppm. The marketability of catalytic
combustion technology may be verified during thenext few years. It is expected that catalytic combustion will first be commercialised in natural gas
fuelled small gas turbines of 1–5 MWe and in gasoline-fuelled microturbines (<100 kWe, hybrid vehicles).

In Finland, the work focused mainly on developinga so-called simplified gasification combined-cycle
process (simplified IGCC), in which solid fuel(biomass, peat, coal) is gasified in a pressurised
fluidised bed gasifier with the aid of air. So far,only one test plant based on this technology has
been constructed. The plant is located at Värnamo,
South-Sweden, and its test runs were completed in
1999. The process is technically ready for largescale demonstration. However, the construction of
the first plants would require an investment subsidy that exceeds the conventional one, and/or asignificant improvement in the competitiveness of
power produced from renewable fuels.

One problem identified in the biomass-fuelled
IGCC plant is due to nitrogen compounds in thegas, like ammonia, which forms NOx in combustion. The removal of ammonia from gasification
gas, i.a., catalytically prior to gas combustion is under intense research and development, i.a., at VTT.
Another alternative of preventing the formation ofammonia-derived NOx is catalytic combustion.
This method enables the achievement of very low
fuel-derived NOx emissions. Simultaneously, emissions of CO and hydrocarbons as well as stability
problems in the combustion of gas with a low calorific value can be eliminated. Catalytic combustionof volatile organic substances is of commercial
technology, and some Finnish companies havegained know-how in this particular field.

The ChemRec black liquor gasification process istechnically the most advanced process at the moment. The atmospheric process has been demonstrated, though still suffering some difficult material problems. The pressurised process demonstration is about to start in Sweden and in USA. Successful black liquor gasification could offer an interesting alternative for traditional chemical recovery boiler. The gasification could significantly increase the ratio of electrical power to thermal
power with combined cycle. Utilising black liquor
and bark, the modern pulp mills are self-sufficientin energy production. However, as a whole theelectricity used in paper and pulp industry ismainly imported.
The main benefits of catalytic combustion are in
the stability and efficiency of combustion, theemissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and,in particular, thermal NOx being very small.
Thanks to the low NOx emissions, the interest in
applying catalytic combustion in power generation
is increasing, in particular, in connection with theGasification gas or pyrolysis oil produced fromsolid fuels can also be used in engine power plants.
Technical problems related, i.a., to gas cleaningand oil-grade issues have prevented the commercialisation of this technology in small power stations. In Finland, new catalytic gas cleaning technology has been under development during the recent years. This technology will enable the construction of gasification engine power stations inthe size class of 0.5–3 MWe. The commercialisation of the process requires the construction of ademonstration plant, and long-term experience.
Oil produced from wood or other biomass can be
stored and transported for use in boilers or motor
power stations. The technology is presently at anexperimental stage and requires commercial-scaledemonstration prior to its commercialisation. Figure 2 shows schematically the classification of different gasification processes.
85

Coal-IGCC
Biomass-engine
Coal-GFBCC
REF-Gasification boiler
Fluidised
bed

Pressurised

Indirect
Partialgasification

Total
gasification
AtmosphericWetcleaning

Fixed bed
OxygengasificationHotcleaning

Entrainedflow
Airgasification
OthersGasification
mode

Extent ofgasification

Type of reactor

Heat
production

Gas cleaning

Figure 2. Classification of gasification processes.

8 Co-production plants
By employing gasification technology, different
carbon-containing feedstocks, like carbon, inexpensive industrial wastes and by-products, andbiomass and municipal waste, can be converted toclean synthesis gas consisting of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The product, synthesis gas, can beused for producing different gaseous or liquid fuels, and chemicals, and for energy generation. The
traditional market of gasification has been in the
production of synthesis gas for the production ofindustrial chemicals. Gasification is also seizing
new energy production markets, as a consequenceof the development of gas turbines, liberated power
production markets and more stringent environmental regulations. In co-production, the share ofsynthesis gas in energy generation or in the production of fuels and chemicals is dependent on themarket demand. The aim is to maximise the utilisation of raw materials and the value of products. In
this way, the capital invested in the plant is also
used more effectively than in simple energy production. The flexible use of feedstocks and products offers a significantly more feasible alternative
than the present plants that generate only energy.
86

Figure 3 shows the gasification based co-production possibilities schematically.
In energy production, the integrated combined cycle power plant (IGCC) based on pressurised gasification can be employed. This process integrates
gasification and gas cleaning to power generation
in a gas and steam turbine. IGCC is one of the mostefficient and cleanest power generation methods(like natural gas combined-cycle power plant)
available for many alternative feedstocks of gasification. Both the IGCC technology and the conversion of the synthesis gas product to liquid products
have been demonstrated successfully, i.a., in research programmes of the U.S. Department of Energy. The aim of the co-generation projects is toconvert synthesis gas generated from various raw
materials to fuels and chemicals. With the
Fischer-Tropsch technology, fuel liquids are produced for replacing gasoline and diesel fuels. The
methanation processes of synthesis gas aim at producing a versatile industrial chemical, methanol. If
the on-going projects indicate that the process concepts are both technically and economically feasible, the construction and implementation of new
co-production plants may be started. As a conse-

Argon, Nitrogen & Oxygen
Carbon Dioxide
Sulfur / Surfuric Acid
Steam
Hot Water
Feed

Gasification
Facility

SyngasCombined
Cycle

Electricity
HydrogenCarbon Monoxide

Slag forConstruction
Materials

Chemical
Production

Fertilizer
Synthetic Natural Gas
Industrial Chemicals
Methanol / DME
NaphthaFischerTropschSynthesis

High Cetane Diesel
Jet Fuel
Wax

Figure 3. Gasification co-products-enhancing economics (Rao 2001).

quence, greenhouse gas emissions, in particularcarbon dioxide ones, may be reduced efficiently.
In Finland, the co-production plants of liquid fuels
and chemicals could be based on biomass resources. However, there is rather little experiencefrom the large-scale production of bio-products
based on oxygen gasification. Development work
has been done primarily in conjunction with the development of IGCC technology. It looks like there
would be sites for a large alcohol production plant
only in connection with large pulp mills. The production costs would be clearly higher than thepresent prices of gasoline and methanol produced
from raw oil and natural gas. Consequently, additional basis for the use of biofuels should be found,i.a., from emissions to the environment. Co-production plants could be sited at wood-processing
plants and also in other process industries.

9 Fuel cells and hybrids
In energy production, high-temperature fuel cells
and fuel cell hybrids will be available technologies
in the size class of 0.2–10 MW power production
and combined power and heat production within
the next 10 years. The time of large fuel cell power
plants will become in a more remote future. As re-gards commercialisation, the German-American
Siemens Westinghouse, American Fuel Cell Energy and its German partner MTU Friedrichshafen, and a number of Japanese well-known energy companies are already well under way. There
are also a high number of other developers ofsmaller size classes in the world. All significant
fuel cell developers will first launch natural gas fuelled products to the market. These technologies
offer higher efficiencies of power production andsmaller emissions than the present or developing
competing technologies, i.a., combustion engines
and turbines. Specified markets are primaryshort-term targets of the fuel cell manufacturers.
As a consequence of public energy programmesthat favour environmentally friendly energy production methods, the marketability of fuel cell
technologies may improve. Research and development of high-temperature cells and fuel cell hybrids should be focused on reducing the price offuel cell modules and systems and on improving
the power density of the cells. Figure 4 shows theestimated performance of power production systems.
In Finland, research and development of high-temperature cells is increasing as a consequence of intensive commercialisation efforts of foreign cell
developers and of increasing interest of Finnish in87

100
90
80
70

Effiency (LHV), %Fuel Cell/Gas Turbine Hybrid System
60

Fuel Cells

50

Gas Turbine Combined Cycle

Internal Combustion Engine

Gas Turbine Cycle Improvements

40

Advanced Turbine System

30

Microtubines

20

Gas Turbine Simple Cycle

10
0

0.1

1

10

100

1 000

Power Output. MW

Figure 4. Estimated performance of power generation systems (HFC 2001).

dustries, like Wärtsilä, and of the National Development Agency of Finland and VTT. As researchand development of high-temperature cells has
been carried on for a long time in other countries, it
may be feasible first to acquire know-how to Finland, to co-operate with foreign institutions and todevelop technologies for Finland’s specific conditions.
In Finland, the gasification technology of biomass
and wastes for energy production has been developed intensively. A longer-term alternative of particular interest to Finland is the use of gas from thegasification of biomass and different wastes, andmaybe also pyrolysis oil, also in high-temperature
fuel cells and fuel cell hybrids. The development of
optimal gasification technology for fuel cells andthe cleaning of gasification gas for fuel cell use
would be one specific object of research and development. Efficient operation of the fuel cells requires a suitable H2/CO ratio of the product gas and88

a very high purity regarding, i.a., sulphur compounds. The present target of gas cleaning is theuse in turbines and engines. According to studies
performed, the solid oxide fuel cell is a more efficient component of the gasification combined cycle process, i.a., with regard to electric power.
However, molten carbonate cells may be used in
the first applications of gasification gas. Experiments from the use of gasification gas in these cells
and the suitability of cell operation temperature arein favour of the use of molten carbonate cells.
There is so far no well-operating and economicalcell stack available.

10 Efficiency and cost estimates
Development of electrical efficiency and investment costs of different technologies reviewed areassessed in Table 4. The values are only indicativeand do not consider, e.g., the effect of size class.

Table 4. Efficiency and cost estimates for new power production technologies.
Technology (fuel)Size class
MW

Investment cost ($) /kWe

Efficiency (%)
Year

Year

2002

2010

2030

2002

2010

2030

PFBC (coal)

50–300

45

50

55

1 250

850

800

IGCC (coal/oil)

300–1 000

51

55

57

1 200

1 000

850

IGCC (biomass)

30–150

47

50

53

1 900

1 500

1 200

IGCC (black liquor)

100–400

30

35

38

1 700

1 500

1 200

Gasification (biomassetc.) engine

0.5–10

35

36

38

2 000

1 800

1 500

MCFC (CH4, etc.)

0.2–50

47

55

58

8 000

1 500

1 000

SOFC (CH4, etc.)

0.2–5045

55

63

10 0001 500

700Hybrid FC/GT(CH4, etc.) etc.)

0.3–7058

70

75>10 000

1 000

600

Gasification(biomass etc.) -FC

0.5–10

45

50

?

2 000

300–1 000

60

62

?

55

?

IGFC (coal)
IGFC (biomass etc.)

30–150Publications and reports made under
the projectHarmoinen A., Heikkilä J., Nyberg K., Raiko M. 2002.
Korkean hyötysuhteen voimalaitostekniikoiden kehitysnäkymät ja vaikutukset kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin - hiili-, maakaasukombi- ja moottorivoimalaitostekniikat sekä prosessiteollisuuden kehitysnäkymät ja vaikutukset CHP-tekniikkaan. [Development scenarios of high-efficiency power planttechnologies in centralised electricity and heat production and their impacts on greenhouse gas emissions – coal, natural gas combined and motor power plant technologies, development scenarios ofprocess industry and CHP technologies. (In Finnish, with English abstract)]. Climtech 1999–2002.
http://www.tekes.fi/ohjelmat/climtech,
http://www.climtech.vtt.fi
Hepola, J., Kurkela, E. 2002. Energiatuotannon tehostaminen fossiilisiin ja uusiutuviin polttoaineisiin pe-rustuvassa energiantuotannossa. [Advanced energy
production based on fossil and renewable fuels. (InFinnish, with English abstract)]. Technical ResearchCentre of Finland. VTT Research Notes 2155.
Espoo, 2002. 65 p. http://www.inf.vtt.fi/pdf/tiedotteet/2002

References
HFC 2001. Hybrid Fuel Cell. Technology Overview, CD
format. May 2001. Contract DE-AM26-99FT40575.
U.S. DOE, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Morgantown, WV, Pittsburgh, PA.
Rao, A. 2001. Advanced Central Power Systems. Proc.
International Colloquium and Exhibit on Environmentally Preferred Advanced Energy Generation,
CD format. 2001. Advanced Power and Energy
Program. National Fuel Cell Research. Universityof California, Irvine, May 2001.

89

The Impact of IT on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Forest Cluster
IT:n mahdollisuudet metsäklusterin kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen vähentämisessä

Petri Vasara, Laura Peuhkuri,
Karina Hänninen
Jaakko Pöyry Consulting
Abstract
Introduction of new technologies to business andproduction processes has direct and indirect impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and, hence, on
climate change. GHG impacts of, e.g., e-commerce have been studied previously (Romm et.al1999), but the forest cluster has attracted limited
attention. This article is based on the Jaakko Pöyry
Consulting study Eclogue that was part of the
Climtech technology program of National Technology Agency (Finland). The study focused ontechnologies that originate outside the forest cluster and that have not yet been widely applied in it,such as e-commerce, smart packaging and wirelesstechnologies.The research approach is based on
three major components: a technology matrix, ahot spot analysis and a GHG impact assessment.
The technology matrix contains a set of prominenttechnologies/concepts commercially available or
about to be commercialised. The hot spot analysis
links the technologies/concepts to value chains ofrepresentative products of the forest cluster. The
GHG assessment is a qualitative assessment ofpossibilities to reduce GHG emission in a forest
cluster. As technologies complement each other,three groups have been formed. Firstly, technologies that can improve production processes in theforest cluster, e.g. data mining, are considered.
Then, technologies that support new businessmodels, e.g. e-commerce and collaborative commerce, are studied, and finally, technologies thatare part of the complementary relationship of electronic media and paper, e.g. e-paper.
Changes in energy consumption and potential improvements in energy efficiency dominate the impact on GHG emissions. The forest industry cluster (forestry, mechanical wood, pulp and paper,90

printing and publishing, related and supporting industries) is a large and multi-dimensional field.
Most industries within the cluster are very capitalintensive. Hence, the cluster industries have traditionally been hesitant to adopt new technology.
This study identifies opportunities for the sector tomove ahead and take advantage of new tools.
When seeking key technologies that would determine the scenarios of impact, information emerged
as the one common factor. Information (and its
proper management) seems to be the one true pivot
around which the possibilities to reduce GHG
emissions in the forest cluster revolve.
Tiivistelmä
Uusien teknologioiden käytöllä tuotantoprosesseissa ja liiketoiminnassa on suoria ja epäsuoria
vaikutuksia kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin (KHKpäästöihin) ja sitä kautta ilmastonmuutokseen.
Esimerkiksi sähköisen kaupankäynnin vaikutuksia kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin on tutkittu (Romm
et. al 1999), mutta sen yhteys metsäklusteriin on
jäänyt toistaiseksi lähes huomiotta. Tässä tutkimuksessa keskitytään teknologioihin, jotka on kehitetty metsäklusterin ulkopuolella. Valittuun teknologiajoukkoon kuuluvat mm. sähköinen kauppa,
älypakkaukset ja langattomat ratkaisut.
Tutkimus kiteytyy kolmeen pääosioon: teknologiamatriisiin, vaikutusten kohdentamiseen (hotspot -analyysi) ja KHK-vaikutusten arviointiin.
Teknologiamatriisi sisältää lupaavia teknologioita/toimintatapoja, jotka ovat joko kaupallistettuja
tai parhaillaan lähestymässä kaupallistusta. Kullekin teknologialle on esitetty arvio laajamittaisen
käytön todennäköisyydestä sekä vaikutuksesta
metsäklusterin KHK-päästöihin. Tarkasteluajanjakso ulottuu vuoteen 2030. Hot spot -analyysi yhdistää tutkittuja teknologioita metsäklusterista valittujen edustavien tuotteiden arvoketjuihin. Kasvihuonekaasujen vähennysmahdollisuuksia metsäklusterissa arvioidaan kvalitatiivisesti. Tarkas-

teltavat teknologiamuuttujat voidaan jakaa kolmeen teknologiaryhmään.Ensimmäiseen ryhmään
kuuluvat tuotantoprosesseja hyödyttävät teknologiat, esim. tiedonlouhinta. Toiseen ryhmään kuuluvat uusia liiketoimintamalleja tukevat teknologiat, esim. sähköinen kauppa. Kolmantena ryhmänä ovat teknologiat, jotka liittyvät paperin ja sähköisen median rinnakkaiseloon, esim. sähköinen
paperi.
Vaikutukset kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin muodostuvat lähinnä energian kulutuksessa tapahtuvista
muutoksista. Metsäklusteri on laaja ja moniulotteinen toimintakenttä. Useimmat klusterin teollisuudenalat ovat varsin pääomavaltaisia ja ovat siksi
perinteisesti olleet hitaita uuden teknologian käyttöönotossa. Tässä tutkimuksessa tunnistettiin
muutamia mahdollisuuksia hyödyntää uusia teknologisia ratkaisuja ja liiketoimintamalleja. Informaatio (ja sen tarkoituksenmukainen hallinta)
näyttäisikin olevan ratkaiseva tekijä, jonka ympärille kiertyvät metsäklusterin mahdollisuudet käyttää uusia teknologioita kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen
vähentämiseen.

1 Introduction
This article describes the results of a project called”The impact of information technology on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the forest
cluster”. The codename ECLOGUE has a connection to the e-Cluster and the GHGs. In the research
project, information technology was definedbroadly to include various technologies that utilise
computer technology, support its development orcreate new modes of behaviour and business practices. Internet technologies, e-commerce, smart
packaging and wireless technologies were among
the topics included in the study. Internet technologies contain a wide group of solutions related toe.g. networking and knowledge management. The
forest cluster includes forestry, pulp and paper, mechanical wood processing, wood furniture manufacturing, printing and publishing as well as otherrelated and supporting industries and specialty input providers (suppliers of key products to the industry).

The aim was to investigate the future impact of newtechnologies that come from outside the traditional
forest cluster. Many of these technologies are what
one might call “enabling”, i.e. they potentially accelerate development in widely disparate areas.
The Climtech program looks beyond the timeframe of the Kyoto protocol, up to the year 2030.
The pace of development over the past 30 years has
been overwhelming in the forest cluster and, mostof all, in the ICT industries. The climate change
triggered by greenhouse gas emissions is a slow
and partly unpredictable process. Markets andbusinesses have been globalising at a breakneck
speed over the past few decades. Against this background, one realises the immensity of the task ofevaluating technologies and impacts so far aheadin the future. The choice made is to report technologies up to a certain point in late 2001 and humbly
acknowledge how quickly individual technologies
may fade or never even come to bloom. However,general trends, hopefully, fare better – and technologies here should be taken to represent those general trends.
The article consists of three major chapters. The
first (Chapter 2) is about the identification and introduction of a group of selected new or emerging
technologies. The second (Chapter 3) gives an illustration of product value chains in the forest industry cluster. The third (Chapter 4) is about thepotential impact of technologies assessing the impact of groups of technologies (three scenarios) on
greenhouse gas emissions in the forest industry
cluster. The assessment is qualitative with the direction of impacts provided. It should be pointed
out that this analysis is confined to one sole industrial cluster, and the overall impact of the technologies (including production and disposal in otherclusters) may be quite different.
The evaluation of technologies is confined to industrialised countries where high technology ispresently available. We, again, acknowledge that
this group of countries is likely to expand during
the period of analysis up to 2030. Structuralchanges in the world economy and global distribution of wealth are, however, beyond our scope.
This fact is important especially when the breakthrough of technologies is estimated. In developing countries, basic infrastructure and technology
91

is lacking to such an extent as to hinder adoption of
ICT technologies. The situation in developing
countries is also different in terms of cost-efficient
GHG abatement, with many more opportunities toreduce industry emissions using conventional
technology – also in the forest cluster.

Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic
displays. Electronic paper is based on printable
plastic electronics. The print can be created withtwo methods: using print colours that react electrically or using a print surface that reacts electrically.

Thus, what follows is an assessment of the impactof a certain set of representative technologies, visible today on a certain industry cluster, as it is today based on a set of assumptions that seem reasonable today.

Identification chips A family of technologies providing items with traceable identity. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has allowed the self-adhesive label to become a miniversion of the computer. Labels can have data storage, built-in security features and integrated chips
which enable product manufacturers to read andwrite data to the tags and to retrieve the data at any
later point in time. A Japanese company has developed a silicon chip for security applications sosmall that it can even be embedded in money. This
new chip is expected to enjoy much higher demandthan conventional ID chips, which are significantly
larger in size.

Given these warnings, the reader may enter the
analysis.

2 Technologies
The technology matrix, the hot spot analysis andthe GHG impact evaluation form the core of themethodology used in this section. A certain technology is in the public (and sometimes scientificand commercial) eye often connected only to its
original field of application. Our approach is toseek new application opportunities boldly in expected and unexpected directions. The solution tomulti-dimensional problems requires the use ofmulti-dimensional approaches. The technology
matrix and related Kyoto staircase are introducedin this chapter. Hot spot analysis and GHG impact
scenarios are explained in chapters 3 and 4 accordingly.
This chapter is divided into the introduction oftechnologies and the placement of them into theso-called technology matrix. The technologies
have been divided into three categories 1) Paper,electronic media and intelligence, 2) Efficient ICT
systems, and 3) New commercial practices. The
latter part includes also the display of technologies
in the Kyoto staircase.
2.1 Three groups of technologies
Paper, electronic media and intelligence
Electronic ink and electronic paper A family oftechnologies modifying or imitating the conventional paper interface known as the printed page.
92

Mobile imaging A family of technologies extending the forms and norms of communication. Mobile imaging is a service, which is devised to back up
multimedia messaging services (MMS) and wireless printing. MMS is a new, versatile messaging
service that can carry multimedia contents, including photographs, video clips, sound bites, text,
maps, graphs, layouts, ground plans, cartoons, animations etc. The user can send the photograph toanother multimedia handset or to a Web service,where it can be viewed, printed or stored.
Smart clothing A family of technologies making
your clothes active. This concept is based on a permanent integration of clothing and technology. For
example, the censor technology monitoring thewearer and his surroundings can be permanently
embedded in the clothing. The user interface canbe e.g. a piece of textile, a watch, eyeglasses orsome mobile device.
Smart packaging A family of technologies to intelligently encapsulate and safeguard goods in transit. Intelligent packages can for example interact
with the environment. A package containing a sensor can show the product temperature or record thestorage conditions of an item.

Efficient ICT systems
Data mining A family of technologies processing
data to knowledge. Data mining is simply about using computer technology to extract actual information from mere facts. One example of technologies
for data mining is the self-organising maps (SOM),
invented by the Finnish professor and Academician Teuvo Kohonen in the early 1980’s. SOM iswhat is known as an “unsupervised” neural network. This means that the network does not need
any direct guidance from the user in its basic operation: it simply takes a mass of data and analyses it.
However, the interpretation of results has to bemade by the user, though various pieces of intelligence are being built into and around the SOM.
Mobile remote control A family of technologies
extending the reach of process control. Mobile remote control means that operators can control a
process by using their mobile devices. In forest industry an example could be, for example, one
where a paper machine gives a signal of problems
occurring and an alarm including a message is directed to the relevant personnel’s mobile phones.
Whether operators can change process parametersfrom the mobile phone directly or have to do thesame thing manually at the paper machine controls
depends on the application.
Nanotubes A family of technologies built aroundthe production and use of a new material. Today,
chipmakers are constantly battling to make thechannel length in transistors smaller and smaller –the channel being the path where data travels fromone place to another inside the chips. A carbon
nanotube, i.e. a sheet of graphite rolled into a tube
measuring up to several dozen nanometers in diameter and around 1 micrometer in length, comesin a variety of shapes and sizes and exhibits differences in such properties as strength and conductivity. Small variations in such factors as materials,
temperature and pressure of the manufacturing
process can yield final products with a quite different set of characteristics.
New computer circuits A family of competing
technologies aiming to increase computing power.
At the moment, one might distinguish between
three schools of thought in developing computercircuits. One thinks there is a lot left to extract fromsilicone. Another concentrates on optical circuits(the velocity of light being the key advantage). A
third puts its faith in nanocircuits (size and materials being the main topics). Combinations of these
are also already visible, e.g. in hybrids of opticaland silicon circuits.
Organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays An
example from a family of technologies built to produce thin, foldable, energy saving displays. OLEDs,
taken, as examples of the family of new display
technologies, are thin films that consist of stableorganic materials. The materials emit light when
an electric current is applied to them. The amountof light depends on the voltage. They differ fromthe currently widely used liquid crystal displays(LCDs) by this light emitting property that removes the need for a separate source of backlight.
Portable fuel cells A family of technologies built
around energy production from electrochemical
devices. A fuel cell produces electric power fromeither hydrogen or alternative fuels such as methanol, propane, butane or natural gas. The waste
products produced by a fuel cell are water, carbon
dioxide and heat. Recently, most of the fuel cellcompanies have focused their methanol fuel cellresearch on hybrids, a combination of batteries andfuel cells as backup; mostly in “sub watt” categories such as mobile phones and lights that fit in a
pocket.
Wireless printing A family of technologies built
around wireless capacity and smart printers. Wireless printing requires the use of “a common language”, that is, a wireless communications standard. Currently the three competing standards are
Bluetooth, IR (infra red) and WLAN (802.11b).
Tuned to a shared standard and using communication chips, two devices can communicate, e.g. a
laptop computer and a wireless printer. The
handheld device and the printer communicate together using pre-defined formats because of thelimited memory and computing capabilities of current handheld devices. The content to be printed
can be anything either stored on the device or“pointed at” by the device (i.e. an Internet address).
93New commercial practices
Collaborative commerce/P2P A family of technology-enabled business practices built around networked collaboration. The arrival of business-tobusiness exchanges on the Web has created new
ways for business partners to work together. Even
after the end of the first, crazed era of the dot-com,
corporate strategists and venture capitalists areembracing collaborative commerce as the next
generation of e-commerce and an evolution of the
traditional supply chain process. By using Web
servers as hubs for collaborative commerce efforts,
companies are seeking to exchange proprietarydata, jointly manage projects and cooperate on thedesign of new products.
E-commerce (B2B, B2C) A family of technologyenabled business practices built around on-line
commerce. E-commerce can be defined as conducting business on-line. Business can be transacted between two firms (B2B) or between a firm
and a consumer (B2C). Conducting businesson-line includes, for example, buying and selling
products with digital cash and via Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI).

Probability ofgeneralbreakthrough– e-commerce (B2C)– smart packaging

Large

Moderate/
debatable

Print-on-demand A family of technology-enabledbusiness practices built around producing paper
copies of digital content. The business model ofprint-on-demand is based on printing digital copies of publications when demanded by the customer. This form of delivering content makes it
possible to deliver print runs of just one, thus it personalises service, books no longer have to run outof print and the problem of excess copies in storageis solved as well.
2.2 Technology matrix and Kyoto
staircase
The technology matrix contains promising, innovative technologies and ways of working. The twodimensions of the matrix are the probability thatthe specified technology or commercial practicemakes a wide-scale breakthrough on the market,
and its potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions in the forest cluster. The matrix is intended toprovide a starting point for the evaluation of technologies. The technologies used in the evaluation
are often interrelated; “families of technologies”,
dependent on the type of use, connected in various– Nanotubes– wireless printing– new computercircuits– mobile imaging– portable fuel cells– identification chips– organic light emitting
diode (OLED) display– e-commerce (B2B)– data mining– electronic ink andpaper– mobile remote control– print-on-demand– collaborative
business practices– smart clothingsmall

increasing

Indifferent/
debatable

Figure 1. Technology matrix.

94

reducing
Impact on GHGs inforest cluster

The Total GHG Reduction
Potential of a Technology

1
2
4A
4B

3

7
6

large

4C
5

Indifferent

Probability of general
breakthroughreducing
neutralsmall
Increasing

Impact on greenhouse gas
emissions in the forest
cluster

Figure 2. Kyoto staircase.

ways to the forest cluster, not expressly developed
for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, andnew or emerging so that there is rarely any data
available.
The main criteria for evaluating the breakthroughpotential of a technology are credibility of the technology and power of the supporting companies/institutions, analysis of the discussion around thetechnology, estimated costs, estimated adoption
rate, user friendliness / subjective value-added, andown (Jaakko Pöyry Consulting) analysis. The main
criteria for evaluating the potential impact on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions
are estimates by the developers of the technology(greenhouse gases are rarely mentioned but energy
consumption is sometimes present), analysis of the
discussion around the technology, and own (Jaakko Pöyry Consulting) analysis. Of course an additional component for both sets of criteria is the ”gutfeeling” – after all, we are talking about technologies with rapid development and far-reaching impacts in the future. It also has to be rememberedthat the impact is dependent on the size of the
breakthrough.
The probability of a breakthrough is the general
likelihood of a technology becoming widely used,
whereas the impact on GHGs is confined to the forest cluster emissions. One important aspect of theanalysis is the time frame. The time horizon for the
analysis is long-term. However, we do not differentiate between those technologies which evidently approach their breakthrough already andthose that may have to wait for the market to ripenin the coming few years or even decades.

3 Hot spot analysis
The first group of products from the forest industry
cluster is paper and paperboard. The first representative product chosen for closer analysis is copy
paper (uncoated wood free paper, office paper).
Copy paper is a member of the fine paper family,
and a general trend for this paper grade in recent
95Technologies that reduce GHGs
e-commerce(B2B, P2P)

E-commerce(B2B, P2P)
Data Mining

Data Mining

Data Mining

Data Mining

Data Mining

ID Chip

Raw Material
Procurement(Fibres, Chemicals)

e-commerce(B2B, P2P)
OLED

Data Mining

ID Chip

Pulping

Papermaking

Further
Processing andWrapping

Sales and Delivery(Warehouse, Retail)End UseEnd-of-life
Treatment

Technologies that increase GHGs
Increasing
Reducing

Figure 3. An example of hot spot analysis – value chain of copy paper.

years has been that its consumption has grown
more than the average. All this is reality despite theincreased use of laptop computers, electronic mailand information retrieval from the Internet.
The value chain of copy paper starts with raw material procurement. The main raw material is virgin
wood; some recycled fibre may also be used. The
pulp used for manufacturing copy paper is mostly
bleached kraft pulp. By definition, wood free paper
contains less than 10% of mechanical pulp. The
chemicals required are mostly fillers and bleachingchemicals. The pulp is taken to a paper machine,which produces uncoated woodfree paper in reels.
The next stage of further processing and wrapping
refers to the cutting of paper into copy paper size
and wrapping it into packages. This can be done already at the mill site, but sometimes the paper isshipped in reels to retailers for further processing.
After the copy paper is wrapped it is sold and delivered to customers that are mostly retailers or large
users. End-use consists of, for instance, printing
and copying. After the paper has been used it is recycled back as a raw material for paper and paperboard.
In the value chain all the other greenhouse gas reductions are assumed to come only from efficiency
96

gains expect for the case of OLED displays. Efficiency gains are partly considered, but anotherpossibility is also that as displays become lighterand user-friendlier, especially in laptop computers,
users will do less printing in the offices and use of
copy paper may actually decline. The additional
reduction caused by the mentioned technologies/concepts is estimated per produced unit. The
overall impact may not be as positive because theconsumption and production of the grade is growing worldwide.
One limit to our analysis is the fact that, in order tomake the reasoning manageable, we have to consider the impact of a given technology or concept
as such, given that all other factors remain thesame. This means that we do not consider changes
in production volumes or in the market structure in
the forest industry cluster. We also do not consider
the overall impact of a technology on greenhousegas emissions (i.e. the impact in forest industry
cluster plus the impact in all other clusters). The
conclusions are also conditional to the breakthrough of mentioned technologies. When all thisis taken into account, the results can be considered
fairly good. The energy-intensity per unit of production or production in whole is likely to fall(even if the change is small) in most cases. Thisconclusion is consistent with the fact that most newtechnologies truly aim at making processes and information flows more efficient – saving energy andother resources in doing so.

4 GHG impact scenarios
In this research project, the main indicator forgreenhouse gas emissions is the change in energy
consumption triggered by the studied technologies. The GHG emissions from energy consumption can be reduced by improvement of energy efficiency of appliances and processes and by structural changes in energy production. The latter is along-term goal, which includes the adoption of energy sources with low emissions, e.g. the use of renewable energy sources on a considerably larger
scale than is done today. The groups of technologies/concepts have been evaluated. The focus here

is not so much on impacts of individual technologies but on their interaction and collective impact.
The selected technologies are not an exhaustive list.
The future scenarios have been chosen from themost likely ones, by our judgement. The base forall scenarios is the first set of technologies: efficient computer systems. Our view is that the efficiency and capability of computer systems willcontinue to grow over the period that was analysed.
We also feel safe in basing the scenarios on the “ultimate enabler”. The two other sets of technologies
may produce more debatable outcomes. The impacts are estimated for industrialised countries
where high-tech is commonly available. Most of
the general growth of production and GHG emissions of the forest cluster is expected to happen indeveloping countries in the coming decades, due toeconomic growth. Hence the impacts of these technologies to the forest cluster in the industrialised

Paper andElectronic Media

Stableconsumption
for paper ande-media

Scenario 1:
Co-prosperity

Scenario 2:
Survival of
the Fittest

success forsome paper
gradessuccess forelectronic media
at the expenseof paperScenario 3:
Dematerialisation

success on widescale

slow adoption

concentration on
selling services

New Commercial
Practices
Figure 4. Scenario matrix.

97

world are minor, in comparison to overall GHG
emissions in the forest cluster. Given our choice ofalternatives, the three scenarios that are finallyanalysed form a diagonal in the Scenario Matrix in
Figure 4.
4.1 Scenario 1
The first scenario is called ”Co-prosperity” and assumes the consumption of paper to flourish alongside with the electronic media. Consumer habits
are expected to change very slowly in favour ofelectronic media, and more radical changes (if theyshould be realised) are expected only when theyoung computer generation joins the workforce.
We expect that enhanced displays may slightly reduce printing. Business-to-business e-commerceturns to be a commonly used form of operation,and information flows, including office documents, will become increasingly digital. These twotendencies would decrease the GHG emissions inforest cluster. Opposite effects would be expectedfrom wireless printing, which makes printing easier, and business-to-consumer e-commerce, which
will increase shipping in small batch sizes. Mobile
imaging can both support the use of specialty paper, thus increasing the GHG emissions of the forest cluster, or replace some paper-based media e.g.
through rebound effects (i.e. money used for multimedia messaging is taken away from e.g. consumption of magazines).
4.2 Scenario 2
Scenario 2 is called ”survival of the fittest”. The development of electronic media and business practices will reduce the consumption of some paper
grades but increase the demand for other kinds.
Those grades that prevail are assumed to be highvalue added ones. As four-colour printing becomes
more widely spread (e.g. prints of digital photos),
quality requirements for paper will also rise.
Coated papers are among the ”winners”.
The link between GHG emissions and market
shares of paper grades is basically the fact that production of high quality coated grades requires
98

more energy than production of uncoated printerpaper, such as copy paper. Widespread use of multimedia messaging will increase the demand forcoated paper grades. The GHG emissions increase,mostly because of larger quantities of coated paper, and partly also because there is some substitution from less energy intensive grades to coatedhigh quality paper. B2C e-commerce will increase
GHG emissions in the forest cluster foremost via
increased demand for packaging material.
4.3 Scenario 3
Scenario 3 is called ”dematerialisation”. In this
scenario the potential of ICT in reducing consumption of materials is fully utilised. Consumers putemphasis on the quality of life and the value added.
E-commerce concentrates on selling services
rather than manufactured goods. This contributes
to stagnating demand of packaging board, and
GHG emissions stay constant. Electronic ink andpaper develop and are used increasingly. This will
decrease the demand for paper with no substitution
by forest cluster products, and hence GHG emissions decrease. Electronic storage of documents
also decreases consumption of office paper with nosubstitution, which carries a similar impact.
Print-on-demand becomes a new model where resources can be used less. Collaborative businesspractices help to optimise the supply-chain and result in efficiency gains. The impact of increased efficiency of ICT is debatable, because the volume ofdevices may counteract the gains in energy-efficiency.

5 Discussion
This article provides a general overview of the development of new technologies and their impact ongreenhouse gas reduction in the forest cluster. In
our study, basic ICT forms the nucleus, aroundwhich an intentionally diverse group of families oftechnologies has been gathered. In trying to be apractical technology futurist, one has to remember
to not only look at technical features but also at thepotential for the required infrastructure, mind set
and operational skills. We can also look at some as-pects, which might undermine what we have written: assumptions, the big picture of environmental
impacts, markets, and different cycles of change.
Assumptions For the sake of simplicity, we had toassume a static universe around changing technologies. Even if our conclusions about the directionsof the impacts would happen to be correct, themagnitudes of the impacts might be such as tochange priorities. For instance, adoption of fuelcells in trucks could significantly lower emissions
from traffic – which throws argumentation basedon logistics out of kilter. Our assumption is thatwhenever electricity consumption increases, theemissions of greenhouse gases (foremost among
them CO2) will increase. This is less true if there isa large transfer to renewable energy or nuclear
power within the coming 30 years.
The big picture of environmental impacts Concern
about the impacts of ICT on the environment hasfrom being a non-issue started to raise its head. The
European Union has launched several initiatives
and pieces of regulation, e.g. a directive on the recycling of electronic waste. The topic of climatechange is highly visible at the moment, but given
the cycles of environmental issues - chlorine andemissions to water are examples of highly sensitive
topics that have dropped to obscurity in a few years– the Next Big Thing may be something that is seen
as completely innocuous at the moment. If so,there may be an impact on the development of thevery technologies we have assessed here.
Markets As so many small technology companies
during the dot-com boom found out: a supply oftechnology does not automatically imply a demand for the technology. The consumers decide
e.g. between electronic media and paper. The
so-called Harvard Law of Animal Behaviour statesthat “test subjects under carefully controlled laboratory conditions do what they damned wellplease”. Consumers, likewise, contrary to whatmarketers and technology creators would like tobelieve, choose whatever product or service they
feel like choosing. In industrialised countries, ICT
has become a significant item in the consumer budget. The growth has not been proportional to the increase in income. The researches investigating rebound-effects ask where the consumer takes themoney for the new ICT habit. The forest cluster,
like other clusters, awaits the consumers’ verdict:whose products shall pay for the ICT?
Different cycles of change Although the forest
cluster generally reacts slower than the ICT industry, 30 years is a long enough period for changeeven under normal circumstances. Together withtrends such as globalisation and consolidation, theforest cluster itself might change beyond recognition.

6 Conclusions
When seeking key technologies that would determine the scenarios, information emerged as theone common factor. Information is the one true
pivot around which the possibilities to reduce
GHG emissions in the forest cluster revolve.
Publications and reports made under
the project
Jaakko Pöyry Consulting 2002. ECLOGUE – the Impact
of Information Technology on the Reduction ofGreenhouse Gas Emissions in the Forest Cluster.
Tekes (Finnish National Technology Agency)/Jaakko Pöyry Consulting, August 2002.

99

Environmental and Energy-Related Benefits of Biotechnology
in Mechanical Pulping
Biotekniset ratkaisut mekaanisen massanvalmistuksen energiataloudessa

Anne Kallioinen, Jaakko Pere,
Matti Siika-aho, Liisa Viikari
VTT Biotechnology, Espoo, Finland
VTT Bioteknologia, Espoo

use, whereas in the “realistic” scenario new technologies reducing greenhouse gas emissions penetrate rather slowly into the energy and industrial
systems.

Helena Mälkki, Antti Lehtilä,
Sanna Syri, Rabbe Thun
VTT Processes, Espoo, Finland
VTT Prosessit, Espoo

The results showed that enzyme-aided refining
was very competitive as compared with alternative
methods, and it would be maximally penetrated
into use already in the realistic scenario. Biopulping, which is technically more difficult to control and also more expensive to invest and operate,would be largely adopted in the optimistic scenario
in 2020. It was shown by the LCA study that implementation of the biotechnical methods reduced total emissions of GHGs.

Abstract
Forest industry is a notable user of electric powerin Finland. The main reason for this is mechanicalpulping, which is very energy intensive. Energy
savings in mechanical pulping would also have anindirect effect on emissions of greenhouse gases(GHG). The aims of the study were to a) study thepotential for energy savings and reduction of
GHGs by implementation of biotechnical methods
in mechanical pulping, b) estimate the possible
costs and c) assess the environmental impacts of
their adoption into TMP production using the LCA
methodology. Two different biotechnical methods
were considered, namely fungal pretreatment ofchips (biopulping) and enzyme-aided refining,both of which have shown a marked potential forenergy savings in mechanical pulping. Biopulping
has been studied intensively, but without experience in mill scale. Enzyme-aided refining was developed during 1990s in collaborative projects,
and the method has been succesfully verified inmill scale trials.
The cost-efficiency, adoption and effects on emissions of GHGs of the biotehnical methods, compared with other competing technologies, were estimated by the EFOM model. Two different scenarios were used extending to the year 2030. In the“optimistic” scenario, cleaner technologies develop rapidly and they are adopted effectively into

100

Tiivistelmä
Metsäteollisuus on merkittävä sähkönkäyttäjä
Suomessa. Syynä tähän on suurelta osin mekaanisten massojen valmistus, joka on erittäin energiaintensiivistä. Mekaanisen massanvalmistuksen energiatalouden tehostamisella olisi siten myös kasvihuonekaasujen päästöjä rajoittava vaikutus. Tämän hankkeen tavoitteena oli a) selvittää bioteknisten menetelmien käytön mahdollisuuksia vähentää mekaanisen massanvalmistuksen energiankulutusta ja kasvihuonekaasujen päästöjä, b) arvioida käyttöönoton kustannuksia, sekä c) tutkia niiden käyttöönotosta mahdollisesti aiheutuvia ympäristövaikutuksia elinkaarinäkökulmasta (LCA).
Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin kahta bioteknistä menetelmää, hakkeen sienikäsittelyä (biopulping) ja
entsyymiavusteista hiertoa, joilla kummallakin
menetelmällä on kokeellisesti osoitettu merkittävä
energiansäästö-potentiaali. Biopulping -teknologiaa on tutkittu laajasti, mutta menetelmästä ei ole
teollista kokemusta. Entsyymiavusteinen hierto
kehitettiin 1990-luvulla kotimaisena yhteistyönä
ja menetelmä on onnistuneesti testattu myös tehdasoloissa.

Bioteknisten menetelmien kustannustehokkuutta,
käyttöönottoa ja vaikutuksia kasvihuonekaasujen
päästöihin suhteessa muihin kilpaileviin tekniikoihin tutkittiin EFOM-mallilla, jossa käytettiin kahtaerilaista kehitysarviota, skenaariota, joissa tarkastelujakso ulottui vuoteen 2030 asti. ”Optimistisessa” vaihtoehdossa uusia ja puhtaampia teknologioita tutkitaan ja otetaan nopeasti käyttöön, sen sijaan ”realistisessa” skenaariossa kasvihuonekaasujen päästöjä rajoittavien tekniikoiden käyttöönotto on hidasta.
Mallitarkastelun perusteella havaittiin, että entsyymiavusteinen hierto on kilpailukykyinen vaihtoehtoisiin menetelmiin verrattuna ja se otetaan
käyttöön maksimaalisesti jo realistisessa vaihtoehdossa. Biopulping-teknologia, joka on teknisesti
vaikeammin hallittava ja investointi- ja käyttökustannuksiltaan merkittävästi kalliimpi kuin entsyymiperustainen menetelmä, tulisi laajaan käyttöön
optimistisessa kehitysvaihto-ehdossa vuodesta
2020 alkaen.
Elinkaaritarkastelussa todettiin, että bioteknisten
menetelmien käyttöönotto vähentää kasvihuonekaasujen kokonaispäästöjä. Sienikäsitelty hake lisää valkaisutarvetta, jolloin päästöt kasvavat valkaisukemikaalien valmistusprosesseissa, mutta
niiden osuus kokonaispäästöistä on kuitenkin vähäinen.

1 Introduction
Generally it is stated that biotechnology has clear
environmental advantages and is economicallycompetitive in a growing number of industrial sectors. Implementation of biotechnical innovations
into industrial use is commonly considered to reduce material and energy consumption, as well as
pollution and waste generation for the same levelof industrial production. However, studies on benefits or “cleanliness” of biotechnical methods inprocess industry are rare (OECD 1998).
Sustainable development in industry is encouraged
by governmental actions, increasing R & D resources and public awareness. The Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gas reductions is an example
of a political push in favour of sustainable develop-

ment and more rapid diffusion and application of
new innovations in industry.
One important means of integrating environmental
issues into industrial design and operations is the
adoption of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which
so far is the best approach to evaluate cleanliness.
Because of the limited availability of data on industrial scale application of biotechnical methods
in mechanical pulping, the LCA done in this study
focuses mainly on the CO2 reduction potential andrespective impacts on the climate.
The aims of the study were to a) study potential forenergy savings and reduction of GHGs by implementation of biotechnical methods in mechanicalpulping, b) estimate the possible costs and c) assess
the environmental impacts of their adoption into
TMP production using the LCA methodology.
Two different biotechnical methods were considered, namely fungal pretreatment of chips (biopulping) and enzyme-aided refining, both of whichhave shown marked potential for energy savings inmechanical pulping.

2 Forest industry in Finland
The production of paper and board in Finland has
increased steadily from 1970’s and in 2000 the annual production was over 1,350 000 t (Forest Industries Federation 2002). Overall production of
paper products has been predicted to grow during
the next twenty years, and the increment will
largely be concentrated on wood containing paper
and paperboards (Fig. 1, MTI 2001a).
Competitiveness of the Finnish pulp and paper
companies is to a large extent based on high quality
wood-containing writing and magazine paper
grades, like SC and LWC. This means that production of mechanical pulps, which are essential pulp
components in these paper grades, is also expected
to increase. A growing portion of mechanical pulp
is estimated to be produced as thermomechanicalpulp (TMP) instead of groundwood pulp (MTI
2001a). Production of groundwood pulp will increase only slightly and this shift in favour of TMP
will have a clear energy related impact.
101

20 000

Production, 1 000 x t

15 000

OthersPaperboard
Wood-free
Wood-containing magazine
Newspaper

10 000

5 000

0
1990

2000

Year

2010

2020

Figure 1. Predicted production of paper and board during 1990–2020 (MTI 2001a).

methods, including biotechnical methods, into
mill processes has to be based on cost efficiency, as
compared with prevailing and other competing
technologies.

In 1998 the consumption of electricity for mechanical pulping in Finland was 9.55 TWh, which corresponded to 40% of the overall electricity consumed in the forest industry (MTI 2001a). During
the next decades, the annual consumption of energy (GWh/a) within the forest industry is estimated to increase gradually in conjunction withpaper and board production capacity (MTI 2001a).

3 Biotechnology and mechanicalpulping

During the last decade, plenty of research efforts
have been focused on reduction of specific energy
consumption (SEC) of mechanical pulping in Finland and also worldwide. Unfortunately, there
seems to be no sign of a new superior method or atechnology heap in mechanical pulping (Sundholm 1999). It is evident that in the near future SEC
in mechanical pulping and paper production will
be decreased within small steps, as new production
machinery and technology are adopted. It is expected that, via optimisation of the refining process
and the control system, some decrease of SEC canbe obtained within a few years (MTI 2001a). Implementation of new technology and production

The general goals of pulp and paper industry today
are to increase the cost efficiency, to develop environmentally benign processes and to improve theproduct quality. The main research and development issue in mechanical pulping has for years
been in reduction of energy consumption in refining. Within this issue, biotechnical research has
been focused on two different approches, i.e.
biopulping with fungi and enzyme-aided refiningof coarse pulp or rejects (e.g. Akhtar et al. 1998,
Pere et al. 2000, 2002). Biopulping involves fungal
pretreatment of chips prior to main refining,whereas in enzyme-aided refining a portion of
screened pulp is subjected to enzymatic treatment

102

BIOPULPING
Fungal pretreatmentof chips

Main
refiners

Screening

BleachingPM

Refining

Rejects
EnzymeENZYME-AIDED REFINING
Figure 2. Principles of the biotechnical methods for mechanical pulping.

3.1 Biopulping

in order to enhance reject refining (Fig. 2). Both ofthe methods have proved to be effective when aiming at energy savings in mechanical pulping.
Biopulping has been tested in laboratory and pilot
scales with promising results, but research efforts
are still needed to verify the concept in mill scale.
Instead, successful mill scale trials with the enzymatic treatment of reject pulp have been performed
and the method is approaching commercial use innear future (Pere et al. 2002).

STEAMING

Wood
chips

In biopulping, wood chips are treated with a selected micro-organism, usually a white-rot fungus,
prior to mechanical pulping. The biopulping organism attacks wood lignin and softens woodchips. This results in substantial energy savings ofrefining. Depending on the organism and woodspecies, the reported energy savings have been in
the range of ca. 20–40% after two-week treatment

INOCULATION

Excesssteam

EW

Inocolum
nutrients,
water

Air

R
YO
VE

SILO

OR
EY

ON

C

SURGE
BIN

R
SC

TREATMENT

EW

V
ON

C

R
SC

SILO/CHIP
PILE

Wood
chips forpulping

Steam
Condensate

Coolingair

Coolingair

Figure 3. A diagram of biopulping process.

103

(Akhtar et al. 1998, Scott et al. 1998b). Paper
strength properties have been shown to improve after biopulping. The main drawbacks of the treatment are yield and brightness losses (Akhtar et al.
1997a, Akhtar et al. 1998). Yield loss is dependent
on the fungus and treatment time. A two-weektreatment with e.g. Ceriporiopsis subvermispora
can cause 2% yield loss (Scott et al. 2002). Fungal
pretreatment of wood chips significantly reduces
the brightness of the resulting mechanical pulp. To
gain the same level of brightness as in normal mechanical pulp, fungal treated pulps need additional
bleaching.
Biopulping with the fungal strains available today
cannot be performed with intact wood chips(Akhtar et al. 1998). Indigenous, natural micro- organisms on wood chips inhibit growth and colonisation of the inoculated fungus reducing its modifying power on chips. Bisulfite treatment or shortsteaming of wood chips prior to inoculation has
been shown to allow the proper start up of fungal
growth on chips.
An operating production line including a biopulping step has not yet been demonstrated. In thiswork an industrial production line for a daily output of 600 tons of treated chips was described andpreliminarily designed (Kallioinen et al. 2002).
The main process stages of biopulping are presented in Figure 3. Reliable operation in Nordic
climatic conditions using spruce as the raw material was the guiding principle in planning work.
Available background information from literature(Scott et al. 1998a, Akhtar et al. 1997b) and discussions with component manufacturers (Metso
Woodhandling, Fläkt Oy, Tankki Oy) were utilised
to aid the planning work. Design work was performed for two options, namely, for the treatment
in silos and piles.
A preliminary cost evaluation for biopulping was
carried out (Kallioinen et al. 2002). Investment
costs for the model production line (600 t/d) were
calculated. Investment costs for the treatment in silos were twice as high as in piles, but in silos thehomogeneity and quality of the treatment is expected to be better due to more controlled growth
conditions for the fungus. The additional need of
bleaching chemicals, electricity and nutrients were
104

shown to be the main factors contributing to the operating costs of the biopulping process.
3.2 Enzyme-aided refining of
mechanical pulp
In addition to microorganisms, enzyme preparations can also be applied in modification of wood
raw material prior to mechanical pulping. In enzyme-aided refining an enzyme preparation, freeof living cells, is used for modification of coarse
pulp or rejects prior to reject refining. The conceptof enzyme-aided refining was developed during
1990’s at VTT Biotechnology in collaboration
with the Laboratory of Pulping Technology at Helsinki University of Technology (Pere et al. 2000,
2002). The main aim was to obtain energy savingsin refining while retaining good pulp properties.
The study started with screening of suitable enzyme(s) for pretreatment of coarse pulp prior tolaboratory scale refinings with a disk-refiner. Main
attention was paid on enzymes acting on carbohydrates, i.e. cellulases and different types ofhemicellulases, instead of lignin-modifying enzymes.
As a result of the screening and testing of several
purified enzymes and their mixtures in laboratory
scale refinings a cellulase, namely cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I), was found to be the most promising.
When coarse TMP (CSF 400–600 ml) was
pretreated with CBH I for a few hours, energy savings between 15 and 20% were obtained in the successive reject refining (Pere et al. 2000). One primary advantage of the method as compared withthe competing technologies was that the reduction
in SEC was obtained without any harmful effects
on pulp quality. In fact, improvement of strength
properties of pulp was demonstrated when coarse
rejects devoid of fines (CSF 600–650 ml) weretreated. In addition, no deterioration of sheet optical properties, e.g. decrease of brightness, was detected due to the enzymatic pretreatment. The potential of this enzymatic method was also tested inpilot scale trials and later on mill scale (Pere et al.
2002). Integration of the enzymatic treatment intoa TMP mill is shown in Fig. 4. No negative downstream effects of enzymatic treatment are foreseen.

8.3 t/h
ScreeningPM

Main refiners
Enzyme

3.2 t/hWhite water
3

1850 mRejecttankBowscreenScrew press

Reject refiners

Figure 4. Implementation of the enzymatic treatment into TMP mill.

4 Scenario studies
The potential of biotechnical methods for energy
savings and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
in Finland was estimated using scenario studies.
The possible future developments were assessed
for two alternative scenarios:• “Realistic” development: International climatechange mitigation measures evolve rather
slowly. There are no significant changes in the
support for the development and commercialisation of cleaner technologies. As a result, newtechnologies reducing greenhouse gas emissions penetrate rather slowly into the energy andindustrial systems.
• “Optimistic” development: As a result of accelerating climate change mitigation measures,
both internationally and within Finland, cleaner
technologies develop rapidly and they are taken
effectively into use. This assumes also increased
support for the development and commercialisation of technologies reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
In the Kyoto protocol, Finland has committed herself to a stabilization of greenhouse gas emissions
at their 1990 level. The target is challenging, as thetotal energy consumption in Finland has grown
during 1990’s by 16%, and the growth has been estimated to continue also in the future. In 2001, CO2
emissions from fuel combustion were 60 million
tonnes CO2, whereas in 1990 they were 53.9 million tonnes CO2 (Statistics Finland 2002). A decreasing trend in CH4 and N2O emissions kept the
Finnish total greenhouse gas emissions below the
Kyoto target during 1990’s.
Figure 5 shows the dominating sources of CO2
emissions in Finland. In the figure the relative importance of CO2 emissions from combustion in theenergy and industrial sectors in total greenhousegas emissions in Finland is also illustrated. The Industrial sector is the second largest single CO2
emitting sector in Finland.
The efficiency of energy and electricity saving
measures in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
depends on the fuel structure used. For instance, if
electricity for the process is produced with coal,electricity savings will result in a reduction of of
CO2 emissions by about about 800–900 gCO2/
kWh. In the other extreme, if the energy used in theprocess were produced by carbon-free sources,
such as (sustainable use of) biomass or hydro105

25

Portion of allemissions

20

TgCO2

15

10
5

Fu
g
Oi itivela end m
Na isstu ion
ra s:
lG
as

m
i
So ssio
lid ns
fu :
els

Fu
git
ive
e

Ot
he
r

rs
cto
Se
Ot
he
r

Tra
ns
po
rt

tu
r
an ingd C Indon uststr rie
uc s
tio
n

nu
fac
Ma

En
er
gy

Ind
us
tri
es

0

Figure 5. CO2 emissions (58.5 Tg) in the energy sector by main source categories and their portion of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission in Finland in 2000. Source: VTT, SYKE.

power, there would not be any direct benefit in CO2emissions. The fuel structure is also prone tochange over time, thus changing the CO2 reduction
efficiency as well.
In Finland, energy saving operations affect mainly
the amount of electricity bought from outside. Theenergy needs of the process industry are quite eventhroughout the year. The energy saving measures
will thus reduce the amount of marginal condensing power needed. In the Nordic countries, themarginal condensing power used is presently
mainly coal power with specific CO2 emissions at
about 800–900 gCO2/kWh. If energy saving measures would reduce the use of natural gas in combined cycle power plants, the specific CO2 emission savings are about 300 gCO2/kWh.
In this project the effect of biopulping techniqueson greenhouse gas emissions in Finland was assessed using the EFOM-ENV energy systemmodel. The EFOM-ENV is a linear optimizing energy system model used at VTT Processes (Lehtilä
and Pirilä 1996, Lehtilä and Tuhkanen 1999). The
EFOM model calculates energy supply and demand with user-defined pre-conditions and constraints, such as fuel prices or total energy demand.
106

The model determines for any study period thecost-optimal mix of fuels and technologies withgiven boundary conditions, such as emission limits. In this work, EFOM was used to analyse thecost-effectiveness of biotechnical methods in
pulping as a measure of greenhouse gas reduction
in comparison to other available measures. An energy system model is required in order to comprehensively assess all the reflections of single additional techniques on the whole energy system.
In the scenario modelling work, the assumptions of
the KIO2 scenario of the recent National Climate
Strategy of the Finnish Government were used
(MTI 2001a, b). In the scenarios it was assumed
that Finland would meet the Kyoto obligation on
the reduction of greenhouse gases, which is the stabilization of greenhouse gas emissions at the 1990
level during the period 2008–2012. After this period it was assumed that the emissions should befurther reduced. A reduction target of –20% fromthe 1990 level was set for the year 2030. In themodel study, it was assumed that after 2010 the energy taxation structure would be gradually transformed towards CO2-based taxation instead of thepresent structures.

The EFOM model was used to find the cost-optimal path for reaching the emission targets. The
penetration of biotechnical methods in mechanicalpulping was determined by their cost-effectivenessin comparison to other greenhouse gas emission
reduction options. In other words, biotechnicalmethods were not “forced” to enter the market unless they proved cost-effective in comparison toother methods available in the total energy system.
In addition, it was assumed that in the future these
biotechnical methods would be applicable also inthe production of coarser grades, e.g. for newspaper production. The potential of biopulping was
mainly investigated with the chip pile option,
which has considerably lower investment costs
than the silo treatment option.
With the conventional assumptions on the development of biotechniques and the required chemical
uses, only the enzyme-aided pulping turned out tobe cost-effective in comparison to other methods
available in the total energy system until the year
2020. By 2030, also biopulping in newspaper production would become economical in the “Realistic” scenario. This is due to the lower additional
bleaching costs assumed in comparison to finer paper grades.

4 000

1990

2000

2010

When the “Optimistic” scenario on the development of biotechnical methods was assumed,
biopulping started penetrating rapidly the sector in
2020. Figure 6 shows the cost-effective penetrationof the different methods with both scenarios andthe total mechanical mass production scenario assumed calculated with the EFOM model (Forest
Industries Federation 2002, MTI 2001a, b).
According to the model, the total electricity consumption would increase from 30.5 TWh in 2010
to 34.1 TWh in 2030 without taking benefit of thebiotechnical methods (MTI 2001b). The conventional scenario for biotechnical methods would
yield about 1% saving in the total electricity consumption of the total forest industry sector in Finland by 2030. The optimistic scenario for biotechnical methods results in about 5% saving in the
total electricity consumption of the forest industry
sector in Finland by 2030.
In the model study, the biotechnical methods compete with all the reduction options, and in the
cost-optimal solution the adoption of biotechnicalmethods may allow to exclude some of the mostexpensive reductions in other sectors of the society.
In the scenarios studied, the biotechnical methods
allowed to exlude mainly some of the expensive

2020

2030

Biopulping
fineBiopulping
coarseKtons year-1

3 000

Enzymesfine
2 000

Normalmethod fineNormalmethodcoarse

1 000

Kio

Kio

Re

fer

en

ce
Re
Kio alOp istic
tim
ist
Kio
ic
Re
fer
en
Kio
ce
R
Kio eal
Op istic
tim
ist
ic
Kio
Re
fer
en
Kio
ce
Re
Kio alOp istic
tim
ist
ic

0

Figure 6. Development of mechanical pulp production in Finland during 1990–2030, and penetration of
the different methods in the scenarios studied.

107

emission reduction options in the service sector.
As a result of this substitution effect, the net impact
on Finland’s total emissions remain much smaller
than the impact in the forestry sector alone. Instead, the main net impact is a decrease in the average emission reduction costs. The total greenhousegas emission reductions in Finland were 0.1
TgCO2 with the conventional technology scenario
and 0.6 TgCO2 with the optimistic technology development scenario, i.e. 0.2% and 1.0% of total
greenhouse gas emissions.
The total emission reduction costs (discounted tothe present value) during the period studied decreased with biotechnical methods by about 33
million € in the “Realistic” scenario and by about
62 million € in the ’Optimistic’ scenario. The marginal costs for further greenhouse gas emission reductions with the biotechnical methods available
were about 47 €/ton CO2-eq. Figure 7 shows thedevelopment of Finnish greenhouse gas emissions
with the scenarios studied.

1990

2000

2010

The EFOM model calculations assumed a 30 years
technical lifetime for enzymatic pulping and 35
years for biopulping. This approximate technicallifetime is a considerably longer time horizon thanwhat enterprises usually base their investments on.
Therefore, the cost-effectiveness results should beviewed from the point of national economy rather
than that of a single enterprise.
The international mitigation of climate change is
expected to change the energy and industrial systems profoundly in long run. Already in the shortterm with the recent EU proposal on greenhousegas emission trading within the EU, envisaged tostart in 2005, CO2 emissions may develop into anarticle of trade with a market price. In this case, calculations on cost-effectivenes of energy-saving investments should take into account also the valueof the CO2 emissions avoided (as was done in the
EFOM model calculations).
The potential of biopulping was mainly investigated with the “chip pile” option, which has con-

2020

2030

90
80
70

Mtonne CO2

F-Gases
60

Ch4

50

N2O

40

CO2

30
20
10

KIO

Re
KIO feren
KIO Rea cel
Op isti
tim c
ist
KIO
ic
Re
KIO feren
KIO Rea celi
Op sti
tim c
ist
ic
KIO
Re
KIO feren
KIO Rea ce
Op listi
tim c
ist
ic

al
tu
Ac

Ac

tu

al

0

Figure 7. Finnish greenhouse gas emissions during 1990–2030 in the scenarios studied.

108

siderably lower investment costs than the “silotreatment” option. With the “Realistic” scenario, it
is unlikely that the biopulping technique with theSilo treatment would have become cost-effective.
In the “Optimistic” scenario, biopulping techniques penetrated their maximum share allowed.
As the investment costs are discounted over thewhole payback time and other costs (such as theextra bleaching needed) form a significant part of
the total cost per tonne produced, also the Silotreatment option could become cost-effective inlong run, especially if pilot experiments indicatethat a better pulp quality or shorter treatment times
can be achieved with the “silo treatment”.
It has been estimated that other options, such as improved process control and further adjustments inrefining process, would also lead to similar unit reduction costs in pulping as biotechnical methods(MTI 2001a). Biotechnical methods may reduce
the economic potential of other energy saving
measures for the same process. It should, however,
be noted that adoption and benefits of biotechnicalmethods are highly plant-specific.

5 Environmental impacts ofmechanical pulping (LCA)
The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology(SFS-EN ISO 14040, 14041, 14042, 14043) wasapplied to study environmental loads and impactsof mechanical pulping (TMP). This LCA study on
TMP includs production of energy, bleachingchemicals and biotechnical products connectedwith the main phases of mechanical pulping. The
main phases of TMP production are debarking,chipping, refining and bleaching. The goal of thelife cycle assessment (LCA) was to produce information on the environmental impacts of the chosen
biotechnical methods if implemented in traditional
TMP production.
The traditional TMP process servs as a reference
for the modified processes, i.e. enzyme-aided refining (ENZYME) and biopulping (BP REAL &BP OPT). The LCA analysis is performed according to the two diffferent scenarios, realistic (REAL)
and optimistic (OPT) mentioned in the previous
chapter. The results are calculated corresponding
to one metric ton (t) of bleached mechanical pulp.

Bleaching chemicals kg/t pulp

60

50

Sod.silicate
SO2

40

NaOH
H2O2
EDTA

30

20

10

0
TMP
2000

Enz.
2005–2030

BP REAL
2005–2010

BP REAL
2020–2030

BP OPT
2005–2010

BP OPT
2020–2030

Figure 8. Estimated use of bleaching chemicals (kg/t of bleached pulp) in different mechanicalpulping systems Enz. (enzymes), BP (biopulping).

109

The system boundaries begin from the wood yard
and end before papermaking, where mechanicaland chemical pulps are mixed with paper additives.
The data for the biotechnical unit processes were obtained from VTT Biotechnology, literature and relevant companies, whereas information on the TMP
process came from UPM-Kymmene Rauma Paper
Mills. Inventory results include consumptions of
bleaching chemicals and energy, as well as emissions causing global warming, acidification andphotochemical formation of tropospheric ozone(IPCC 1995, Lindfors at al. 1995, Hauschild &Wenzel 1998). The results deal only with emissions to air, because at the moment there are noavailable data on eventual wastewater loads causedby the biotechnical methods.
Consumption data of bleaching chemicals, electricity and heat in the mechanical pulping systems
are presented in Figs. 8 & 9. A significant increaseof bleaching chemicals can be noted in the beginning of implementation of biopulping technology,
but due to R & D efforts it is estimated to decrease
later. The enzyme-aided refining does not affectthe consumption of bleaching chemicals. The
biotechnical steps, i.e. the fungal treatment ofchips, comprise 12–14% of the total energy use of
the considered systems. The energy savings are in
the order of 0,13–0,6 MWh/t of bleached pulp

4

Energy use MWh/t pulp

Reject refiners (MWh/t)
Main refiners (MWh/t)

3

Barking & chipping(MWh/t)2

Enzyme/biopulping
treatment(heat,MWh/t)

1

Enzyme/biopulping
treatment(electr. MWh/t)

0
BP REAL

BP OPT

BP OPT

BP OPT

2005–2030 2005–2010 2020–2030

2005

2010

2020–2030

Enz.

TMP
2000

BP REAL

Figure 9. Estimated consumption of electricity and heat (MWh/t) in different pulping systems
Enz. (enzymes), BP (biopulping).

800
CO2, fossil

CO2 kg/t pulp

600

400

200

0

TMP

ENZ.

BP REALBP REAL

BP OPT

BP OPT

BP OPT

2000

2005-2030

2005-20102020-2030

2005

2010

2020-2030

Figure 10. CO2 emissions as kg/t of bleached pulp in the mechanical pulping systems Enz.
(enzymes), BP (biopulping).

110

700

GWP kg CO2 eq./t pulp

600
500

Bleachingchemicals

400

Logs treatment& refining

300

Enzyme/biopulping

200
100
0

TMP
2000

BP REALBP REAL

BP OPT

BP OPT

BP OPT

2005–2030 2005–2010

ENZ.

2020–2030

2005

2010

2020–2030

Figure11. Global warming potentials expressed as equivalents of kg CO2/t of bleached pulp
Enz (enzyme), BP (Biopulping).

when taking into account the steam energy used in
the biopulping systems.
The total greenhouse gases (CH4, CO2 and N2O) released by the modified TMP processes are composed almost totally of the CO2 emissions (Fig.
10). They are mainly due to energy production processes and combustion of fossil fuels. In biopulping, the fungal treatment of chips causes about
10%, refining 77% and the bleaching chemicals
about 13% of the total CO2 emissions of the system. The shares of the N2O and CH4 emissions are
small and they originate almost totally from energy
production chains of bleaching chemicals. The
emissions causing acidification and photochemical formation of tropospheric ozone follow almost
the same trend as the emissions of the greenhousegases (Kallioinen et al. 2002).
The electricity savings in refining reduce the total
emissions. It can be emphasised that the production chains of the enzyme and fungal inoculum
form only a minor part of the total greenhouse gas
emissions released in mechanical pulping systems.
However, the increased use of energy in fungal
treatment of chips causes emissions.
The global warming potentials were also calculated as equivalents of CO2 (Fig. 11). The share oftransports of chemicals is small compared with theshare of logs treatment & refining. The shares of
bleaching chemicals and enzyme/biopulping arequite equal forming 9–13% of each from the total
system. The calculated potentials of global warming, acidification and photochemical formation of
tropospheric ozone follow the same trend as thecorresponding total emissions. The need of steam
and electricity in storing of chips and fungal treatment increase emissions and environmental impacts in biopulping. Also in biopulping, the production chains of increased use of bleaching chemicals generate emissions, but later developments ofthe biopulping technology is expected to lower
them under the present level.
Based on the LCA study the following conclusions
can be made:• total air emissions decrease due to implementation of the biotechnical methods• air emissions from the production chain of
the enzyme and fungal product are low• air emissions from the production chains of
bleaching chemicals increase due to increased
use of H2O2 and NaOH in biopulping• wastewater loads are expected to increase inbiopulping, but the calculations are omitted due
to unavailability of relevant data at the moment.
111

6 Conclusions
The results show that enzyme-aided refining is
economical and competitive as compared with alternative methods in improving energy economy
of mechanical pulping. Biopulping can also becompetitive in spite of rather high investment
costs, but it still needs research efforts in order tobe largely adopted in industrial use.
The LCA study shows that implementation of
biotechnical methods in mechanical pulping will
reduce the total air emissions including GHGs due
to decreased energy use in refining. However, theair emissions from the production chain of bleaching chemicals and fungal treatment of chips increase due to increased needs of chemicals and energy in the biopulping system. However, the air
emissions from the production chains of the enzyme and fungal products are low. More knowledge, continued research efforts and large-scale
trials are though needed to assess wastewater loads
and to improve the quality of the data on the environmental burdens when utilising biotechnicalmethods in mechanical pulping.
Publications and reports made under
the project
Kallioinen, A., Pere, J., Siika-aho, M., Viikari, L.,
Mälkki, H., Lehtilä, A., Syri, S., Thun, R. 2002. Environmental and energy-related benefits of biotechnology in mechanical pulping. VTT Publications
xx. Espoo, Finland. (to be published).

References
Akhtar, M., Blanchette, R.A., Kirk, T.K. 1997a. Fungal
delignification and biomechanical pulping ofwood, In: Advances in Biochemical Engineering
Biotechnology, Vol. 57, Ed. T. Scheper, SpringerVerlag, Berlin, Germany, p.159-195.
Akhtar, M., Blanchette, R.A., Myers, G., Kirk, T.K.
1998. An overview of biomechanical pulping research. In: Environmentally friendly technologies
for the pulp and paper industry, Eds. R. Young and
M. Akhtar, John Wiley & Sons, New York, p.
309-340.
112

Akhtar, M., Lentz, M.J., Blanchette, R.A., Kirk, T.K.
1997b. Corn steep liquor lowers the amount of
inoculum for biopulping, Tappi J. 80, 161-164.
Forest Industries Federation 2002. Yearbook of Forestry
in Finland 2002. Finnish Forest Industries Federation, Helsinki, Finland. ISBN-952-9506-54-6.
Hauschild, M., Wenzel, H. 1998. Environmental Assessment of Products. Volume 2: Scientific background.
Chapman & Hall.
IPCC 1995. The Science of Climate Change – Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. Edited by J.T. Houghton, L.G. Meira
Filho, B.A. Callander, N. Harris, A.Kattenberg and
K. Maskell. Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge.
Kallioinen, A., Pere, J., Siika-aho, M., Viikari, L.,
Mälkki, H., Lehtilä, A., Syri, S., Thun, R. 2002. Environmental and energy-related benefits of biotechnology in mechanical pulping. VTT Publications
xx. Espoo, Finland. (to be published).
Lehtilä, A., Pirilä P. 1996. Reducing energy related
emissions. Using an energy systems model to support policy planning in Finland. Energy Policy
24:805-819.
Lehtilä, A., Tuhkanen S. 1999. Integrated cost-effectiveness analysis of greenhouse gas emission abatement. VTT Publications 374, Espoo, Finland.
Lindfors, L.-G., Christiansen, K., Hoffman, L.,
Virtanen, Y., Junttila, V., Hanssen, O.-J., Rønning,
A., Ekvall, T., Finnveden, G. 1995. Nordic Guidelines on Life-Cycle Assessment, Nordic Council of
Ministers, Nord 1995:20, Århus. ISSN 0903-7004.
ISBN 92-9120-692-X.
MTI 2001a. Technology and the reduction of greenhouse gases. Background report for the National
Climate Strategy. Ministry of Trade and Industry,
Publications 1/2001, Helsinki, Finland. ISBN951-739-585-X.
MTI 2001b. The reduction needs and possibilities ofgreenhouse gases in Finland. Background report for
the National Climate Strategy. Ministry of Tradeand Industry, Publications 4/2001, Helsinki, Finland. ISBN 951-739-596-5.
OECD 1998. Biotechnology for Clean Industrial Products and Processes. Towards Industrial Sustainability. OECD publications. Printed in France.
ISBN 92-64-16102-3.
Pere, J., Siika-aho, M., Viikari, L. 2000. Biomechanicalpulping with enzymes: Response of coarse mechanical pulp to enzymatic modification and secondary refining. Tappi J. 83:5, 1-8.

Pere, J., Ellmén, J., Honkasalo, J., Taipalus, P., Tienvieri,
T. 2002. Enhancement of TMP reject refining by
enzymatic modification of pulp carbohydrates - A
mill study In Viikari, L. & Lantto, R. (Eds) Biotechnology in the Pulp and Paper Industry: 8th ICBPPI
Meeting, Progress in Biotechnology, Vol. 21, pp.
281-290, Elsevier Science B.V.
Scott, G.M., Akhtar, M., Lentz, M.J., Swaney, R.E. 1998a.
Engineering, scale-up, and economic aspects offungal pretreatment of wood chips, In: Environmentally friendly technologies for the pulp and paper industry, Eds. R. Young and M. Akhtar, John
Wiley & Sons, New York, p. 309-340.
Scott, G.M., Akhtar, M., Lentz, M.J., Kirk, T.K., Swaney,
R. 1998b. New technology for papermaking: commercializing biopulping, Tappi J. 81, 220-225.

SFS-EN ISO 14040. Environmental management. Life
cycle assessment. Principles and framework. 1997.
SFS-EN ISO 14041. Environmental management. Life
cycle assessment. Goal and sco-pe definition andinventory analysis. 1998.
SFS-EN ISO 14042. Environmental management. Life
cycle assessment. Life cycle impact assessment.
2000.
SFS-EN ISO 14043. Environmental management. Life
cycle assessment. Life cycle inter-pretation. 2000.
Statistics Finland 2002. Preliminary Energy Statistics
2002 [Energiaennakko].
Sundholm, J. 1999. Future outlook. In MechanicalPulping, J. Sundholm (ed). Papermaking Scienceand Technology, Book 5, pp. 415-421, FPEA,TAPPI, Jyväskylä.

Scott, G.M., Akhtar, M., Swaney, R.E., Houtman, C.J.
2002. Recent developments in biopulping technology at Madison, WI. In: Progress in Biotechnology,
Vol 21, Biotechnology in the Pulp and Paper Industry, 8th ICBPPI Meeting, Eds. L. Viikari and R.
Lantto, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, p.
341-383.

113

Industrial Ecology and the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Teollinen ekologia ja kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen vähentäminen

Hanne Siikavirta
Helsinki University of Technology, Lahti Center,
Lahti, Finland
Teknillinen korkeakoulu, Lahden keskus, Lahti
Pekka Järvinen
Fortum Energy Solutions, Vantaa, Finland
Fortum Energy Solutions, Vantaa
Lassi Linnanen
Helsinki University of Technology, Lahti Center,
Lahti, Finland
Teknillinen korkeakoulu, Lahden keskus, Lahti
Abstract
Industrial ecology is a relatively new concept emphasizing systems approach in studying the interaction of natural and industrial systems and seeking ways to redesign industrial systems to reduce
the ecological impact to levels the natural system
can sustain. It can be suggested that climate change
mitigation is a challenge that requires systems approach and novel ideas related to technologies andpractices and their implementation and diffusion.
The aim of the project was to study the potential ofindustrial ecology in bringing novel insights into
climate change research and greenhouse gas control. The project was realised by reviewing literature and activities in the field of industrial ecology
and by interviewing experts from universities, research institutes, ministries and industry. In addition to this two case studies were carried out: one
related to regional energy system and one to
e-commerce and food production and consumption system. The results of the project were presented in a workshop that formed a part of the project.
The unique features of industrial ecology compared with other frameworks and ideas are the useof natural systems as a metaphor and guide in designing industrial systems and the search after in114

novative system level solutions to complicated environmental problems. Closing the loops by using
waste material of one industry or facility as a raw
material of another is considered by many to be acentral theme of industrial ecology. As the casestudy on regional energy system shows, this type ofsolutions are already to some extent a normal practice in industry and have led to significant energy
savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions.
Industrial ecology could be helpful in identification and implementation of innovative future system level solutions, if it were able to create newkind of cooperation between researchers studying
climate change and its mitigation from different
perspectives and at different system levels, and toenhance the interaction between the producers andusers of research results.
Tiivistelmä
Teollinen ekologia on suhteellisen uusi käsite, joka
painottaa systeemilähetymistapaa luonnon ja teollisten systeemin vuorovaikutuksen tutkimisessa jateollisen systeemin suunnittelussa sellaiseksi että
sen ympäristövaikutukset eivät ylitä luonnon kantokykyä. Ilmastomuutoksen hillintä on haaste,joka vaatii systeemilähestymistapaa ja uusia ideoita liittyen teknologioiden ja toimintatapojen kehitykseen, käyttöönottoon ja leviämiseen.
Projektin tavoitteena oli selvittää teollisen ekologian mahdollisuudet tuoda uusia näkökulmia ilmastotutkimukseen ja ratkaisuja kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen vähentämiseen. Projekti toteutettiin
käymällä läpi kirjallisuutta ja haastattelemalla
asiantuntijoita yliopistoista, tutkimuslaitoksista,
hallinnosta ja teollisuudesta. Lisäksi tehtiin kaksi
case-tarkastelua: toinen liittyen alueelliseen energiajärjestelmään ja toinen sähköiseen kauppaan ja
ruuan tuotanto- ja kulutusjärjestelmään. Projektintulokset esiteltiin tilaisuudessa, joka muodosti
osan projektin toteutusta.

Teollisen ekologian ominaispiirteinä muihin käsitteisiin verrattuna voidaan pitää luonnon käyttöä
vertauskuvana ja ohjenuorana teollisen systeemintarkastelussa ja suunnittelussa sekä pyrkimystä
löytää innovatiivisia järjestelmätason ratkaisuja
monimutkaisiin ympäristöongelmiin. Kiertojen
sulkemista käyttämällä toisen jätettä toisen raaka-aineena pidetään teollisen ekologian keskeisenä teemana. Alueellisen energiasysteemin tarkastelu osoittaa, että tällainen toiminta on jo jossain
määrin normaalia teollisuudessa ja että sen avullaon säästetty energiaa ja vähennetty kasvihuonekaasupäästöjä metrkittävästi. Teollinen ekologia saattaisi edesauttaa tulevaisuuden innovatiivisten järjestelmätason ratkaisujen tunnistamista
ja toteutusta, mikäli se pystyisi lisäämään yhteistyötä ilmastomuutosta ja sen hillintää eri näkökulmista ja eri järjestelmätasoilla tutkivien tahojen
välillä sekä tutkimustuloksia tuottavien ja niitä
käyttävien tahojen välillä.

1 Introduction
Industrial ecology is a relatively new concept emphasizing systems approach in studying the interaction of natural and industrial systems and seeking ways to redesign industrial systems to reduce
the ecological impact to levels natural system cansustain. A new field needs to show that it generates
novel insight, practical advantage or some leverageover problems that are not provided by otherframeworks or ideas (Lifset 2002).
It can be suggested that climate change mitigation
is a challenge that requires systems approach andnovel ideas related to technologies and practices
and their implementation and diffusion. The aim of
the project was to study the role of industrial ecology in this respect. The project was realised by reviewing literature and activities in the field of industrial ecology and by interviewing experts fromuniversities, research institutes, ministries and industry. In addition to this two case studies werecarried out: one related to regional energy systemand one to e-commerce and food production andconsumption system. The results of the project
were presented in a workshop that formed a part ofthe project.

2 What is industrial ecology
2.1 History and development
The concept of industrial ecology appeared in theliterature for the first time in 1970’s. The current
content of it, however, originates to great extent
from the article “Strategies for Manufacturing” inScientific American by Robert Frosch and Nicolas
Gallopolous (1989) and article by Hardin Tibbs(1992). More about history of industrial ecology
can be read from literature (Erkman 1997).
Earlier industrial ecology was often used almost
synonymously with industrial metabolism. Industrial metabolism describes the industrial system asa living complex organism, feeding on natural resources, material and energy, digesting them into
useful products and excreting waste. Industrial metabolism can be applied at many different levels:
globally, nationally, regionally, by industry, bycompany and by site. Industrial metabolism analysis highlights the dramatic difference between natural and industrial metabolic processes. There arelarge differences between energy and material densities and fluxes and no primary producer (analogous to photosynthetic organisms) in the industrial
world. In the natural world some nutrients flow inclosed loops with near universal recycling,whereas industrial systems are mostly dissipative,
leading to materials concentrations too low to be
worth recovering but high enough to pollute. Currently industrial ecology goes further than industrial metabolism: it attempts to understand how theindustrial system works as an interactive system,
how it can be regulated, and how it interacts withthe biosphere and other industrial systems (Johansson 2002).
The main sources of information about industrial
ecology as a field of science are books by Ayres etal. (forthcoming in 2002), Graedel and Allenby(Graedel and Allenby 1995 and Allenby 1999) and
Journal of Industrial Ecology (from 1997).

115

2.2 Current content, critics and future
development

2.3 About the unique features ofindustrial ecology

The current content and the main differences between different studies based on content analysis(modified from Indigo Development) and the interviews are presented in table 1.

2.3.1 Industrial ecology as a metaphor

O’Rourke et al. (1996) made the first critical review of the literature of industrial ecology and argued that: the field is poorly defined, the tools havemethodological weaknesses, strategies do not often support the goals, implementation to date does
not reflect the ideas expressed in literature and thetechnical analysis of energy issues and socio political analysis of means to transform industry are extremely limited.
Based on the critics presented by O’Rourke, threeareas for development of the field were recently
suggested (ISIE News 1/2002): the concepts of industrial ecology should be focused and refined,mechanisms for discussion and a debate involving
a broad range of actors and interested parties
should be created, and experiments with the implementation of the concepts should be carried out.

Metaphors can extend our understanding by carrying our thoughts into unknown by using the known
as a stepping stone, describe issues that are difficult to describe by using exact quantitative terms
and be used to give new names for old activities.
It is at the moment not easy to see when a metaphor
like industrial ecology used as a name of discipline
actually adds insight and when it only conveys
wishful thinking. It is not clear whether industrial
ecology is only a descriptive name and tempting
vision or can really be helpful in defining new
strategies for industrial development (Johansson
2002).
2.3.2 Using models and lessons from
ecology in design of industrial
systems

Industrial ecology uses the concepts of ecology ina very selective way – most often only in a rhetorical manner. This is most probably so, because thefield of industrial ecology is mainly developed by

Table 1. Current content of industrial ecology and main differences between the industrial ecology studies.
Current content

Main differences between the studies

Industrial ecology uses systems approach andthe methods from systems sciences.
Industrial ecology attempts to transform linear
material and energy flows of industrial societies
into cyclical material and energy flows by applying
operation and function of natural ecosystems asa guidance and/or metaphor to find new ways ofthinking.
IE is (or should be) interdisciplinary, linking the
research and planning of many fields.

What is the purpose of the study or activity:
theoretical development, to describe a system,to give recommendations for changing systems or
to implement something.
What are the spatial and temporal boundaries of thesystem.
Which elements are included/focus in the system:
substances, materials, energy, products, plants,
firms, industry sectors.
What issues are taken into account: environmental,
economical, social.
What is the extent of change: Incremental changes
in existing systems or far reaching transformations.
What is or what are the sources of change/transformation: Institutional reforms, technologicalinnovations, etc.
And resulting from issues above: methods and tools(SFA, MFA, LCA, energy analysis, IOA) are
different.

116people who are more familiar with industrial systems. Industrial ecology has to great extent capitalized on the systems ecology model, which focuseson the flows of energy and nutrients at the ecosystem level. The reason is the attention given to production processes and their associated flows of energy and materials. It is suggested that applicationof the population ecology model to industrial systems (e.g. on products) could provide a usefulcomplement to the systems ecology approach. The
population ecology model emphasizes intra- andinterspecies interactions of many types and studies
population dynamics of the various species in ecosystem (Levine 1999).
Harte suggests two ways how business managers
and policy makers can make use of the insights ofecology in design of industrial systems. One approach is to think of ecology as providing the blueprint and the second approach is to think of lessons
from ecology as providing constraints or boundary
conditions.
Harte argues that it does not make sense to treat
ecosystems as blueprints. For example the carbon
cycle is open and wasteful at any local scale andclosed only at global scale. The extent it does makesense to recycle in industrial systems, it makes
sense to do so as locally as possible. In ecology energy is used once and the waste is released to atmosphere. Thus human society as its makes use ofwaste heat is not using nature as a template. Natural ecological and evolutionary processes do notpromote equity or justice. There is no external regulation, no regulatory body or forces that can protect the weak and unfortunate and create equity andjustice.
On the other hand the ecology as a constraint is avery important lesson that is needed if the goal issustainable society. Ecosystems are a source of essential services to society. The environmental footprint of human economy needs to be reduced sothat natural ecosystem services can continue to beprovided to society. The way to reduce the footprint is to reduce the consumption, population
growth and protect habitat. A sustainable humanfuture would not be the outcome of mimicking natural ecosystem processes. Instead a sustainable human future will require appropriate technology,

wise planning and most importantly, preservationof natural ecosystems around the planet (Roundtable discussion 2001).
2.3.3 System level solutions

The most critical innovation of the industrial ecology model is claimed to be the level of inter-enterprise co-operation. It is suggested that industrial
ecology will contribute to sustainable development as co-operation between various actors produces system innovations that go beyond process
improvements or single product innovations (Wallner 1999, Huber 1998).
System innovations are distinguished from system
improvement as being more comprehensive responses involving changes in production chains, in
product-service systems and the way people consume and live. System innovations require the orientation of private and public actors towards
long-term transition goals. By focusing on longterm goals of sustainability and paying attention to
dynamics and learning, the process of system innovation aims to overcome the conflict between
long-term ambition and short-term concerns. System innovation involves changes in sociotechnicalsystems beyond a change in (technical) components. It is associated with new linkages, newknowledge, different rules and roles, a new logic ofappropriateness and sometimes new organizations. System innovation usually consists of a combination of new and old components. Industrial
ecology – defined as the closing of the material
streams through the use of waste output of one
company as a raw material by another company - is
described as a special example of system innovation which combines old components in a novel
way (Kemp and Rotmans 2001).
Eco-industrial networks (by-product synergy, integrative chain management, industrial symbiosis,
eco-industrial parks) can be considered as an attempt to implement these ideas of industrial ecology in practice. The approach of using waste of one
company as raw material of another is often criticized, because the major raw material and productflows are more or less excluded from observations
and great effort is being made to minimise residuals (Wallner 1999).
117

Islands of sustainability and distributed economies
are regional concepts that require tailor made solutions addressing all dimensions of sustainable development. The key questions are the interaction of
global and local level and the economical feasibility of new local solutions.

projects. Studies related to dematerialization havebeen carried out. Some regional systems have beenstudied as examples of industrial ecology. Also research and development related to utilization ofmunicipal and industrial wastes and by- products
and theoretical industrial ecology research has
been carried out.

2.4 Activities
Because of the relatively short history of the fieldof industrial ecology and its emerging nature it isdifficult to list the organisations that have “industrial ecology” activities. Currently the activities in
the field are mainly academic and scientific.
International Society of Industrial Ecology (ISIE)
is a recently established society that promotes industrial ecology as a way of finding innovative solutions to complicated environmental problems.
ISIE publishes ISIE newsletter and helds conferences. Academic and scientific organizations thathave activities in the field of industrial ecology arefor example International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Wuppertal Institute for
Climate, Environment and Energy/Material Flowsand Structural Change, Chalmers University ofTechnology and Göteborg University/ PhysicalResource Theory, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University, Norwegian University of Science and Technology/Industrial Ecology Programme, Leiden
University/ The Centre of Environmental Science,
Erasmus University/ Centre for Sustainable Development and Management and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies/ Industrial Environmental Management. There are also some consulting organizations that are mainly involved indeveloping eco-industrial networks in developing
countries and North America.
In Finland the activities related to industrial ecology have been carried out in various research
programmes financed mainly by the Ministry ofEnvironment, the Ministry of Trade and Industry,
the National Technology Agency and the Academy of Finland. Methodologies (for example life
cycle analysis (LCA), material flow analysis (MFA)
and input-output analysis (IOA)) of industrial
ecology have been developed and used in several
118

3 Case studies
The regional energy system of Jyväskylä can be regarded as an example of eco-industrial network although the ideas of industrial ecology and eco-industrial networks have not contributed to its formation. The aim of the study carried out together withpartners in the network and University of Jyväskylä was to find out whether the environmental,
economical and social performance of the current
system was better compared with alternative
choices that could have been done in the past.
The potential of e-commerce to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions related to food productionconsumption system was analysed qualitatively
for the whole demand-supply chain and quantitatively for the e-grocery home delivery service. The
data for the quantitative study was produced inTekes project Ecomlog (Supply Chain Solutions
for Electronic Commerce) carried out by Helsinki
University of Technology.
3.1 Regional energy system
In Jyväskylä, located in Central Finland and having
a population of approx. 80 000, about 3300 GWh ofprimary energy per year is consumed. The largest
proportion of the energy consumed in Jyväskylä isused for heating purposes. Heating of buildings accounts for nearly one half of the total energy consumption. Industrial processes account for 30%
and road traffic about 10% (excluded in this study)of energy consumption. Industry is the biggest userof electricity in Jyväskylä, consuming about 40%of the total electricity consumed.
About 900 GWh/a of district heat is produced in
the system, the main user being the City of Jyväskylä. The total process steam production of the sys-

Oil
JYT
Savelaheating
plant

Peat
VAPO,
Peat and wood fuelsupplier

Peat
Oil

Forest residue
suppliers
Suppliers ofresidual wood
fuel fromindustrial plants

JYT
Heat
boilers

Peat

FortumServiceOyDistrict heatDistrict
heat

Heat

Steam

Metso Oy,
Jyväskylä

Jyväskylän
energia Oy/
City of
Jyväskylä

Districtheat

JYT
Rauhalahti
power plant
Peat,
Wood fuelSmall-scale peat
suppliers

Steam

Heat
Keski-Suomen
Lämpö Oy

Pedestrian
district
Metsä-Serla
Kangas Paper Mills
Heat

Coal
FORTUM's
own peat
production

Peat

Oil

Electricity
Ash

Viherlandia/Viherlaakso

Figure 1. Regional energy supply system of the City of Jyväskylä.

tem is about 400 GWh/a and the electricity production about 400 GWh/a. CHP (Combined Heat andPower) production increases the overall efficiency
to 80–90%, compared with 30–40% in conventional condensing power plants.
The heat for a cultivation, exhibition and sales center is extracted from the return steam condensate
from Kangas Paper Mills. In addition, a pedestrianprecinct in the Jyväskylä city center is kept clear ofsnow and ice in wintertime by using the district
heat extracted from the district heating waters returning from the city.
Energy is mainly produced by using domestic, local fuels. The primary fuel is milled peat. In recent
years, the use of wood residues from the neighbouring industrial plants has increased substantially. Recently a decision was made to invest in afuel handling system that enables further increasing of the use of wood fuel.
A park and garden area situated near the power
plant utilizes the ash produced by the power plant
for landscaping. This saves thousands of tonnes ofgravel that would otherwise be extracted from nature for these landscaping purposes. The utilization of ash from the nearby power plant reduces theneed for transportation, which would be considerably higher if the gravel needed by the park andgarden area were transported from further away.
The need for transportation would also increase if
the ash produced by the power plant had to betransported further to a disposal site.
In order to provide insight into the matter, the environmental, investment, employment and revenue(related to fuels used in energy production) effects
generated by different technological and organizational choices made in the current energy systemwere compared with alternative systems. The
amounts of heat, steam and electricity produced
were assumed to be the same in all the systems.
The alternative systems are based on the following
assumptions: there would be separate heating instead of district heating (fuel mix as today, as in
70’s and as in 60’s), there would be separate production of heat and electricity and all the actors
would build their own power and/or heating plants.
The air emissions of the studied systems are shownin figure 2.
Table 2 summarizes the comparison of the current
system with the alternative systems studied (a mi119

Current system
Without district heating
Without district heating 1970s
Without district heating 1960s
Separated production
Without co-operation0500
CO2 000ton/a

1 000

1 500

NOx ton/a

SO2 ton/a

2 000

2 500

Particles ton/a

Figure 2. Air emissions in the current and alternative systems.

nus sign indicates higher emissions, lower employment, lower revenues for the region, and higher investment than in the current system, whereas a plus
sign indicates the opposite).

sions made and the local co-operation have been
beneficial for the environmental performance ofenergy generation in Jyväskylä.
The current system has also increased employment
and the revenues for the region compared with theother alternative systems studied, except for the
1960s system, in which, because of the lower conversion efficiency, more biomass is used. The recent decision to invest in increasing the use of biomass will further increase the positive effect on

The comparisons presented in table 2 show that thecurrent energy system has a better environmental
performance than have the alternative systems.
The increase in the use of biomass in the current
system will decrease CO2 and SO2 emissions significantly in the future. This indicates that the deci-

Table 2. Summary of the comparison of the current system with the alternative systems studied.
System/ Item

1960

1970

Current
fuel mix

Separatedheat andpower
production

CO2 emissions

-

-

-

-

-

+

NOx emissions

-

-

-

-

+

-

SO2 emissions

-

-

+

-

-

+

Particle emissions

-

-

-

-

-

-

Employment

+

-

-

-

-

+

Revenues to region

+

-

-

-

-

+

Investments

-

+

+

-

-

-

120

No district heating

No cooperation

Increase of
biomass
in current
systememployment and revenues for the region. The investments in the current system are lower than in
the alternative systems, except in the systems
where no district heating network is built and theindividual heating boiler costs are moderate (Hämäläinen and Siikavirta 2001).
3.2 Food production and consumption
system- e-grocery home delivery
service
The case study revealed many possibilities for
e-commerce to reduce GHG emissions in the foodproduction and consumption system. Some potentially negative effects were also identified. It can be
estimated that the current GHG emissions fromgrocery shopping travel are 1.1 Mt CO2, which accounts for 1.4 percent of Finland’s GHG emissions. Depending on the home delivery concept
used, it is possible to reduce the GHG emissions by
18–87 percent from the situation in which households do the shopping trips by using their own cars.
E-grocery home delivery service can thus lead to a
GHG emission reduction of 0.19–0.95 Mt CO2,
which reduces emissions in Finland by roughly
0.3–1.3 percent.
The results indicate that the e-grocery home delivery service may have a significant potential to reduce GHG emissions from purchase shopping, depending on the selected operations model. The total GHG emission reduction potential of e-grocery
home delivery service in Finland is, however, relatively small since transportation sector is responsible for only 15 percent of the GHG emissions.
Further study related to e-grocery home delivery
service is required. More information is needed
about the estimated theoretical potential of e-grocery home delivery service and the gap between
the theoretical and likely potential. The narrowingof the gap between the theoretical and the actual
potential requires a concept that will simultaneously provide added value to consumers and be
profitable to companies. The concept showing thehighest potential for reducing GHG emissions inthis study was a service that provided the greatest
flexibility in arranging efficient delivery making it
attractive for the service provider. The customer

should in this concept have a reception box andplan his/her shopping so that one delivery per week
would suffice. The implementation of the concept
requires significant changes in the shopping habitsof customers and co-operation of a new kind between retailers and their customers.
There are also secondary effects that call for further study. E-commerce enables provision of environmental and social information and decisions
based on it. The consumer could thus become able
to influence and reduce the GHG emissions fromthe whole supply chain. On the other hand it is possible that money and time potentially saved by using e-grocery services is spent to substituting
activivities that merely lead to higher GHG emissions (Siikavirta et al. 2001).

4 New perspectives on climatechange research and greenhousegas control from industrial
ecology
4.1 Industrial ecology as a metaphor
Metaphor and analogy are close concepts. In theworkshop, the possibility of studying industrial
ecology as a double analogy was presented. It canbe said that analogy is used in explanatory-predictive contexts, while metaphor can be used more
broadly, in either explanatory-predictive or expressive-affective contexts.
Taking ecology as a base domain could provide
new insights for framing and solving the environmental problems. Lessons from organising andmanagement of the industrial systems could on theother hand bring new insights to management of
the ecosystems (Hukkinen 2002).
It is at the moment not clear whether the use of industrial ecology as a metaphor, analogy or double
analogy brings new insights into climate change
research. The different ideas about the scope anddefinition of industrial ecology and mixed feelings
about its usefulness that were revealed in the interviews and the workshop can be regarded as both astrength and a weakness in this respect.
121

4.2 Using natural systems in thedesign of the industrial systems
Closing the loops by using waste material of one
industry or facility as a raw material of another isconsidered by many to be a central theme of industrial ecology. As the Jyväskylä case study shows,solutions of this type already are to some extent a
normal practice in industry and have led to significant energy saving and greenhouse gas emission
reductions. Some new ideas related to this theme
and greenhouse gas control like utilization of CO2
or wastes as raw material or energy have been studied in other Climtech projects.
Interesting themes for further studies could be theinteraction of climate change related regulations
and industrial ecosystems. What are their impacts
in existing cases? Are they a driver or barrier forchoosing and implementing the best future solutions from system level perspective in Finland orother countries?
Nature as provider of constraints and boundary
conditions is a central theme in climate change research. There are huge efforts going on to understand climate change and its impacts better. If thegoal of industrial ecology is to seek ways to redesign industrial systems to reduce their impact tolevels natural system can sustain, it should study
ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions much
more significantly than is done currently. It should
also create an interdisciplinary framework enabling cooperation of a new kind between researchers studying climate change and its mitigation from different perspectives and different system levels and enhance the interaction between the
producers and users of research results.

122

4.3 System level solutions
According to some opinions there is a need to
study and find more radical system level innovations especially for challenging global problems
like the climate change. Industrial ecology, on theother hand, is according to many a concept that is
related to improvement of the existing industrial
system and most suitable for studying regional systems. Radical innovations in industry may lead toincreased efficiency and overcapacity. From regional perspective this may lead to lost jobs orcomplete lost industries.
Potentially a fruitful direction for the regional approach in the industrial ecology would be to study
and experiment with islands of sustainability or
distributed economies type of concepts. In theseconcepts, the guiding principle of the developmentof the system is sustainable development or wellbeing in broader sense. The effect of these concepts on greenhouse gas emissions is probably
mostly indirect and difficult to quantify.
Industrial ecology could contribute to the transformation of the industrial systems by focusing on theactors and the rules that guide their behaviour. The
studies should find out why the systems have developed as they have and how they can be changed.
Knowing the history and lessons from discontinuities are important. The discussions in the workshop emphasized the importance of changes in the
production cost structure and markets as drivers ofchange from the perspective of industry. The anticipated future development of the price of CO2 will
have a huge impact in this respect. The timeframe
should be long enough, if the goal is to study moreradical innovations. More attention should be paidon political and institutional barriers and issues,
like capital, that are crucial for the implementationof the solutions.

Publications and reports made under
the project
Hämäläinen, K., Siikavirta, H. 2001. Improved Environmental Performance by Means of Eco-Industrial
Networks and System Innovation. Submitted for
publication in Journal of Cleaner Production.
Siikavirta, H. 2001. System Innovations for Greenhouse
Gas Control, paper presented in Sustainable Services and Systems, 29-30 October 2001, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Siikavirta, H., Järvinen, P., Linnanen. L. 2002. Industrial
Ecology and Greenhouse Gas Control, Final reportof the project (to be published in the Publication Series of the Institute for Regional Economics andBusiness Strategy, Helsinki University of Technology).

Hämäläinen, K., Siikavirta, H. 2001. Improved Environmental Performance by Means of Eco-Industrial
Networks and System Innovation. Submitted for
publication in Journal of Cleaner Production.
Indigo Development. WWW pages. Referred in February
2002. http://www.indigodev.com/DefineIE.html
ISIE News, Volume 2, Issue 1, February 2002. Available
at http://www.yale.edu/is4ie
Johansson, A. 2002. Industrial ecology and industrial
metabolism: Use and misuse of metaphors. In
Ayres, R.U., Ayres, L.W. (eds) (2002) “A Handbookof Industrial Ecology”, Edward Elgar Pub.
Kemp, R., Rotmans, J. 2001. The Management of the
Co-Evolution of Technical, Environmental and Social Systems. Paper presented in international conference Towards Environmental Innovation Systems, 27-29 sept 2001, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Siikavirta, H., Punakivi, M., Kärkkäinen, M., Linnanen,
L. 2001. Effects of e-Commerce on Greenhouse
Gas Emissions: A Case Study of Grocery Home
Delivery in Finland. Forthcoming in Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Levine, S.H. 1999. Products and Ecological Models- A
Population Ecology Perspective. Journal of Industrial Ecology,1999. Vol.3, N:o 2-3, p. 47-62.

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Ayres, R.U., Ayres, L.W. (eds). 2002. A Handbook of Industrial Ecology, Edward Elgar Pub.
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