Improving the Efficiency of Fossil Carbon Use for Materials

This paper deals with the use of fossil carbon to manufacture materials ("products of no-energy use") and with the potential to reduce the inputs of fossil resources and the emissions of fossil Carbon CO2. The paper starts by giving an overview of the material flows in Germany in 1995. As an interesting result, recycled and re-used products still accounted for less than 10% of the final products consumed domestically. Then the energy requirements and Co2 emissions of all the production and waste processes related to non-energy use are calculated: it is estimated that approx. 1700 PJ of finite primary energy are consumed and 57 Mt of fossil CO2 emissions are released (1995). Compared to the total German industry (without non-energy use) this is equivalent to nearly 44% for energy and 18 % for fossil CO2. The potential for future improvement is quantified by estimating the possible impact of recycling, re-use, enhanced energy recovery and the use of biomas as a feedstock. In total, the potential savings identified amount to 218 PJ of gross finite energy and 13,6 Mt of grossfossil CO2.