Transcript Plastics: Energy efficient resource use

The future belongs to plastics
and plastics belong to the future
David Cadogan, ECPI
Plasttekniske Dager, Oslo, 8-9 November 2006
Objectives
• The threats to our future
• The importance of energy
• The role of plastics
– The “in use” phase is a key contributor to the energy
efficiency of products
– Contribute significantly to the decoupling of economic
growth and energy demand
• Life without plastics
• The unbelievers
• Summary
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Threats to our future
• Ever increasing use of oil and coal
– Heating
– Electricity generation
– Transport
• Continual increase in level of greenhouse gas emmissions
• Climate change – Now
3
Consumption of oil & gas by sector
Heat, electricity
and energy
42%
Transport
45%
Other (nonenergy use)
5%
Plastics
4%
Chem/
petrochem
feedstock
4%
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Plastics – part of our daily life
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Packaging and Construction dominate
• Packaging
: 39%
• Building & construction
: 23%
• Automotive
: 8%
• Electric & electronic
: 7%
• Furniture
: 3%
• Agriculture
: 2%
• Medical
: 2%
• Others (household, leisure, sports)
: 15%
Total demand in EU25 (2004) = ca. 43.5 Million tonnes
Source:AJI-Europe
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The importance of energy
• All processes need energy for extraction /production /
distribution
• Good property balance of plastics products provides energy
savings across their life-cycle
• At end-of life additional energy savings possible via recycling
and/or energy recovery
• Renewable energy is a priority (and biomass developments
may benefit from synergies with non-renewable waste plastics)
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The importance of total life cycle
• All materials & products consume energy resources
– Feedstock & production energy, energy for use-phase
• Materials can frequently save energy resources
– Less production energy than alternatives
– Less energy demand in the use phase
– Energy recovery possible in waste management
• Study by GUA, Vienna - estimate the net-effects of the TOTAL
MARKET of plastic products in Western Europe on energy
demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during total
lifetime, compared to a case in which plastics would not exist.
8
Main results of study
(Gesellschaft für umfassende Analysen GmbH - GUA, Vienna, 2005)
• Total energy to produce, use and recover plastics in Western
Europe is 3.900 Million GJ/a
• Substitution of plastics where possible (81%) would need
additional energy of 1.020 Million GJ/a (+ 26%!)
• Additional GHG emissions if plastics were substituted:97 Mt/a
or 56% more than in total life cycle of all plastic products
today
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Results are equivalent to ...
• 1.020 Million GJ/a additional energy needed for
substitution of plastics is equivalent to
– 22.4 Million tonnes of crude oil or 43 ultra large crude oil tankers
(a row of 20 km of ultra large crude oil tankers)
– primary fuel input of 10 nuclear power plants with 1.000 MW capacity
– heating and warm water for 40 Million people (half of Germany)
• 97 Mt/a additional CO2 emissions are equivalent to
– 30% of the annual Kyoto reduction target for the EU-15
in the period 2000 – 2012 (319 Mt/a)
– CO2 emissions from 90% of private cars in Germany
– all Germans driving 4-5 times per year to the Italian beach and back
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EU Green paper on energy efficiency
• Europe will import 70% of its energy supply by 2030!
– Growing world-wide energy demand
– Lack of crude-oil refining capacity
– Political instability in sensitive regions
looking for internal
solution
• Europe can save 20% of its energy demand by 2020!
– Changing consumer behaviour
– Energy efficient technology
– Innovation
looking for internal
solution
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Plastics contribute to the energy solution
•
Plastics production, use and recovery are closely related to
energy efficiency by:
–
–
–
–
•
optimized production of raw materials
increasing the energy efficiency of products during the use phase
contributing to energy efficiency in end-of-life recycling
contributing to energy efficiency through end-of-life recovery
Plastics enable eco-efficient use of natural resources and
save energy.
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What more about decoupling?
• Limits to what can be achieved by just changing raw
materials
• Design and behaviour to improve energy efficiencies
are critical factors
• Improving insulation of houses (with any suitable
material) makes a dramatic contribution
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Design and changing behaviour
• Innovative products make it possible to cut CO2 emissions
and energy consumption:
• 0.3 % of the European fossil fuel
consumption in 2003 is used as plastics
materials in Automotive
– Weight savings resulted in an average fuel
consumption cut of 750 liters per life span
of 150, 000 km
– Oil consumption reduced by 12 Mt and CO2
emissions by 30 Mt.
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Benefits of insulation also enable de-coupling
(GUA GmbH, Vienna, 2006)
• Study on plastics insulation (EPS/PUR/XPS) shows production
energy is recovered after first 4 months use in insulation of outer
walls in EU (2004). Over lifetime, energy savings are 150x energy
needed for production
• Total use net savings from insulation boards sold in 2004 are:
– 290 Million tonnes CO2 over their lifetime and
– 5150 Million GJ
• Savings from additional insulation alone (ceilings, floors, window
frames) would almost double the savings given above.
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How much is 5,150 Million Giga Joules?
Ultra large crude oil tanker
“Jahre
PlasticsViking”
in use can
savecarry
about 120 Million tonnes
137
Mill litres
crude
oillarge crude oil tankers
of crude
oil orof216
ultra
lined up for 99 kilometres.
… or 10 % of the total
final energy consumption
of the EU25 in 2002
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Increase reliance on other forms of energy
• Waste phase of plastics offers significant potential for
resource savings
• Extensive landfilling of End-of-Life plastics means a valuable
hydrocarbon resource is being wasted.
• Depending on the ability to sort into homogeneous streams of
the same type, discarded plastics can be recovered as either
material for (mechanical) recycling or used as a source of
feedstock and energy.
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The four recovery options of plastic waste
Raw material derived from oil/natural gas
Plastic materials
Consumer products
Reuse
Mechanical
recycling
Feedstock
recycling
Energy
recovery
Waste
Landfill
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Conclusions
• Plastic products enable significant savings of energy and
GHG emissions
• Substitution of plastic products by other materials in
current applications would greatly increase the
consumption of energy and the emission of greenhouse
gases
• Plastic products help use resources in the most efficient
way
• Restricting plastics relative growth would result in
increased energy consumption
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Conclusions
• Diversion from landfill would increase resource efficiency
• The preferred route for homogeneous and clean plastic
waste streams is mechanical recycling
• Waste-to-Energy is an additional resource and is
complementary to mechanical recycling
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Conclusions
• It is obvious that plastics can play in significant role in
safeguarding the future of our planet. However there is
great media coverage of:
• “Natural” is much better than “synthetic”
• The Greenpeace pyramid of plastics
• Endocrine disrupters (BPA, phthalates, all chemicals)
• Theo Colburn – “Our stolen future”
• Increasing asthma, decreasing AGD
• Falling sperm counts – chemicals or life style
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Conclusions
• The future belongs to plastics
• Without plastics there will be no future
• Thank you for your patience
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