ENERGY EFFICIENCY OPPORTUNITIES AT KALAMIA MILL—A CASE STUDY

THE Australian Federal Government requires that corporations consuming more than 0.5 PJ of energy per year participate in the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program (EEO). The EEO program encourages large businesses to improve their energy efficiency by identifying, evaluating and implementing cost effective energy savings opportunities. To assist the sugar milling industry with the assessment requirements of the EEO program the Sugar Research Institute (SRI) was awarded a tender by the Department of Resources Energy and Tourism (RET). Through consultations between RET and the Sugar Industry Communities of Practice (SICoP) a candidate mill was chosen for the assessment trial. The mill chosen was the CSR Kalamia Mill site. The paper details the requirements of the EEO program and provides a summary of a case example for undertaking the assessment on the sugar mill, Kalamia Mill. The paper identifies the typical energy consumption of a sugar factory and categorises this relative to fuel type. Potential value adding energy efficiency opportunities focused around cogeneration, surplus steam production or generation of surplus bagasse resulting from energy efficiency improvements are provided in the paper. The EEO audit identified several operations at Kalamia Mill which can be improved to increase either power export from Kalamia Mill and/or increase the generation of surplus bagasse from Kalamia Mill for use at Pioneer Mill for cogeneration. Improvements in sugar processing capability were also revealed through improvements to energy efficiency at Kalamia Mill.