Iron and steel production consumes enormous quantities of energy, especially in developing countries where outdated, inefficient technologies are still used to produce iron and steel. Carbon dioxide emissions from steel production, which range between 5 and 15 percent of total country emissions in key developing countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa), will continue to grow as these countries develop and as demand for steel products such as materials, automobiles, and appliances increases. In this report, we describe the key steel processes, discuss typical energy-intensity values for these processes, review historical trends in iron and steel production by process in five key developing countries, describe the steel industry in each of the five key developing countries, present international comparisons of energy use and carbon dioxide emissions among these countries, and provide our assessment of the technical potential to reduce these emissions based on best-practice benchmarking. Using a best practice benchmark, we find that significant savings, in the range of 33 percent to 49 percent of total primary energy used to produce steel, are technically possible in these countries. Similarly, we find that the technical potential for reducing intensities of carbon dioxide emissions ranges between 26 percent and 49 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions from steel production in these countries.

The U.S. chemical industry is the largest in the world, and responsible for about 11 percent of the U.S. industrial production measured as value added. It consumes approximately 20 percent of total industrial energy consumption in the U.S. (1994), and contributes in similar proportions to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Surprisingly, there is not much information on energy use and energy intensity in the chemical industry available in the public domain. This report provides detailed information on energy use and energy intensity for the major groups of energy-intensive chemical products. Ethylene production is the major product in terms of production volume of the petrochemical industry. The petrochemical industry (SIC 2869) produces a wide variety of products. However, most energy is used for a small number of intermediate compounds, of which ethylene is the most important one. Based on a detailed assessment we estimate fuel use for ethylene manufacture at 520 PJ (LHV), excluding feedstock use. Energy intensity is estimated at 26 GJ/tonne ethylene (LHV), excluding feedstocks.The nitrogenous fertilizer production is a very energy intensive industry, producing a variety of fertilizers and other nitrogen-compounds. Ammonia is the most important intermediate chemical compound, used as basis for almost all products. Fuel use is estimated at 268 PJ (excluding feedstocks) while 368 PJ natural gas is used as feedstock. Electricity consumption is estimated at 14 PJ. We estimate the energy intensity of ammonia manufacture at 39.3 GJ/tonne (including feedstocks, HHV) and 140 kWh/tonne, resulting in a specific primary energy consumption of 40.9 GJ/tonne (HHV), equivalent to 37.1 GJ/tonne (LHV). Excluding natural gas use for feedstocks the primary energy consumption is estimated at 16.7 GJ/tonne (LHV). The third most important product from an energy perspective is the production of chlorine and caustic soda. Chlorine is produced through electrolysis of a salt-solution. Chlorine production is the main electricity consuming process in the chemical industry, next to oxygen and nitrogen production. We estimate final electricity use at 173 PJ (48 TWh) and fuel use of 38 PJ. Total primary energy consumption is estimated at 526 PJ (including credits for hydrogen export). The energy intensity is estimated at an electricity consumption of 4380 kWh/tonne chlorine and fuel consumption of 3.45 GJ/tonne chlorine, where all energy use is allocated to chlorine production. Assuming an average power generation efficiency of 33 percent the primary energy consumption is estimated at 47.8 GJ/tonne chlorine (allocating all energy use to chlorine).