A review on energy saving strategies in industrial sector

An industrial sector uses more energy than any other end-use sectors and currently this sector is consuming about 37% of the world's total delivered energy. Energy is consumed in the industrial sector by a diverse group of industries including manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and construction and for a wide range of activities, such as processing and assembly, space conditioning, and lighting. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review about industrial energy saving by management, technologies and policies. Latest literatures in terms of thesis (MS and PhD), journal articles, conference proceedings, web materials, reports, books, handbooks on industrial energy management, policies and energy savings strategies have been compiled. Energy saving by management including energy audit, training programs and housekeeping beside some energy management practices in the world has been reviewed. Energy saving technologies, such as use of high efficiency motors (HEMS), variable speed drives (VSDs), economizers, leak prevention and reducing pressure drop has been reviewed. Based on energy saving technologies results, it has been found that in the industrial sectors, a sizeable amount of electric energy, emissions and utility bill can be saved using these technologies. Payback periods for different energy savings measures have been identified and found to be economically viable in most cases. Finally, various energy-saving policies for few selected countries were reviewed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.