Prospects for Saving Energy

Abstract

Oil is both a dominant fuel in world energy markets and the fastest depleting of the major fuels; this makes it virtually certain that there will be a continuing upward trend in oil prices, which will encourage a transition away from oil, through fuel substitution and energy conservation. In industry, coal will provide major opportunities for substitution but electricity may also contribute. Energy conservation in UK industry could amount to 35 Mt of coal equivalent/year in due course. Although much industrial energy consumption will come about through retrofit measures such as waste heat recovery, there are important savings to be made from the introduction of new lower energy processes. Powder metallurgy offers this potential in a range of markets for metal parts and continuously produced materials. Powder metallurgy is probably saving the UK some 13000–14000 t of coal equivalent/year now with a potential to increase these savings by an order of magnitude. PM/0238