Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Energy use and distribution in the pulp paper and boardmaking industries

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7286206· OSTI ID:7286206

The Pulp, Paper and Boardmaking Industries (PPBI) are major energy consumers in the U.S. economy, ranking fourth among all industry groups in this respect. Including the consumption of waste streams generated within the industry's manufacturing processes, the overall energy consumption in 1972 was 2.2 x 10/sup 15/ Btu (2.2 quads or 2.3 x 10/sup 18/ joules). Energy consumption is almost equally distributed between pulpmaking and recovery or regeneration of pulping chemicals, on the one hand, and pulp drying, papermaking and boardmaking, on the other. The impact of proposed near-term pollution abatement regulations upon the industry's overall energy consumption is expected to be modest, with additional energy use for discharge control to both air and water aggregating less than 5%. Zero Pollution Discharge (ZPD) regulations could nearly double the energy requirements per ton of product however, due mainly to liquid effluent treatment requirements. The energy savings predicted by the industry, assuming that ZPD is not required, is approximately 10% below the 1972 level, per unit of product, by 1980. Full utilization of all industry alternatives for conservation could probably double this savings.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn. (USA)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-26
OSTI ID:
7286206
Report Number(s):
ORNL/TM-5884
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English