Special Topic 2Achieve a Low Carbon Society and Reduce Global CO₂ Emissions

From total plant management to understanding individual energy sources per product

The same amounts of CO₂ emissions are produced by domestic and overseas operations in the DIC Group. In Japan, we are working to save energy by converting to LNG from heavy oils, adopting Biomass cogeneration system, and since FY 2009 have been power generation using wind power. We have reduced overall energy usage outside Japan, too, with biomass boilers and other solutions in tune with regional characteristics.

In 2010 we star ted "Energy Conservation through product-specific process improvement" action based on moving to the next stage from energy-saving improvements at shared facilities at the DIC Hokuriku Plant (Ishikawa Pref.). This was to address the fact that the majority of manufacturing processes were "non-continuous processes", where many different products are made on the same line, as opposed to continuous processes where a few products such as refined oil are mass-produced. To speed up energy-saving initiatives, then, we needed to identify energy challenges for a variety of products and improve processes in addition to having shared facilities for supplying energy.

EneSCOPE and VETA for better power saving

In 2009, the DIC Hokuriku Plant implemented centralized monitoring to understand in real time (in graphs) how much of the electricity, steam, nitrogen, and other energy generated in the Power Dept. was being used on production floors. The facility also established "EneSCOPE" to verify loss and waste, for large total contribution to energy-saving. Our next effort was developing and setting up "VETA*1" to visualize energy consumption by manufacturing stage. Employing traditional logic to the problem of power conservation, we predicted through theoretical heat budget calculations the amount of energy we could save by upgrading equipment, shortening operating times, and establishing optimal operating conditions. But because in creating products changes must be made to various operating conditions at many stages, and because we are sharing equipment across multiple reaction series, it was difficult to correctly ascertain the stages for each product where the most power was being consumed.

• ※ VETA：A DIC original system meaning Visualization of Energy based on Theory and Actual usage.

VOICE

Reducing CO₂ emissions is a social imperative for global firms

The strengthening of international CO₂ emissions regulations, rising prices of energy resources, and calls for energy conservation in Japan due to the suspension of multiple nuclear plants are all contributing to a harsher energy environment. To address this, we are placing hope on our ongoing "product-specific process improvement", which will be the first step in CO₂ emissions control via the LCA method and a means to reduce emissions by individual energy source and overall. We also see an obligation to society in sharing these efforts with DIC plans and Group companies.

Susumu Haibara
Senior Manager
Production Control Department

Taking the first step to achieve "visualization"

It was then that the Engineering Division (Polymer EG) developed a system for "visualizing" energy usage per product and manufacturing stage based on a urethane acrylic polymer line at a new resins plant that had many measuring instruments. They enabled the collection and monitoring of measurement data on computers used in control. The effects of "visualization" were seen immediately. The results overturned common knowledge dictating that the most energy is consumed at the reaction stage and showed that the raw material fusion stage used the most energy, accounting for almost 50% of total consumption.

Knowing this, we were able to cut 30% of energy usage at the raw material fusion stage by strictly managing temperature, time, and fans in the thermal container where raw materials are fused. A VETA analysis also showed us that almost 20% of power was being used at the equipment cleaning stage when switching products. This prompted us to optimize production schedules and put the same products into continuous reactions to minimize cleaning stage power usage. Consequently, we determined we would be able to realize a 10% reduction of CO₂ emissions produced during urethane resin synthesis. The Engineering Division (Polymer EG) is now working to ensure that VETA is used to achieve similar results with other products and at other plants.

One more way to "visualize": CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics)

Sun Chemical Group Initiatives

Carbon Footprint Project

Aiming to understand greenhouse gas emission levels, Sun Chemical calculated CO₂ emissions for its major products at the production, shipping, and sales stages. In the "2010 Carbon Footprint Report" issued in November, 2010, we reported on the following points.

1. Quantification of greenhouse gas emissions at the manufacturing and shipping stages of a product's life cycle.
2. Carbon footprint quantification for major products.
3. Identified areas where greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced based on information gained.

One factor behind this was success in reducing the amount of electricity we purchase by 33%, giving us 278,836 tons in CO₂ emissions for the entire Sun Chemical Group in FY 2010. We also began a project to reduce electricity usage by 2% and natural gas usage by 11% at our main 16 plants for the two years from 2010 to 2011.

Engagement of the Kashima Plant

Introduction of Wind Power Generators

Effects of the Restructuring

As an effect of the global warning prevention achieved through the energy restructuring made to the Kashima Plant in FY 2009, an amount of CO₂ emissions of 31,423 tons (equivalent to 59% of the entire Kashima Plant) was reduced. As a break down, an electricity amount of 5,315 MW (equivalent to 1,320 kl of crude oil) was generated by the wind power generators, where an amount of 2,222 tons in CO₂ was reduced, and a heat amount of 474,913 GJ (equivalent to 12,253 kl of crude oil) was generated by the biomass boiler, where an amount of 29,201 tons in CO₂ was reduced. The amount of CO₂ emissions reduced at the Kashima Plant shares 11% of the total CO₂ emissions released by the entire domestic DIC Group in FY 2009.