New ideas for energy savings – Creative approaches to achieving significant energy savings in chemical industries

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Current Situation: At present, the approval process for chemical plant construction in China has been delegated to lower-level authorities. The intention behind this was good, but in practice, it has led to numerous problems. Here are some of these issues: First, there is a severe imbalance in production capacity between upstream and downstream sectors. Delegating project approval to local authorities brings significant benefits to enterprises, as it simplifies the approval process and facilitates the initiation of projects. However, **on both levels, officials are expected to bring benefits to their respective areas while also under pressure to achieve tangible results. At the same time, when it comes to local project development, it becomes difficult to keep track of the situation regarding projects at higher levels, which leads to an inability to control overall production capacity and results in a severe imbalance between upstream and downstream production capacities.** Second, the technical standards of the installed devices vary. For domestic enterprises today, economic efficiency is not the only important goal for all of them; different goals lead to different approaches in terms of technical control during project implementation. For example, a private enterprise or individual business, in an effort to maximize profits, may neglect investments in technology as well as in energy-saving and environmental protection measures. Third, the project plans of enterprises involved in project construction are mostly singular, with little consideration given to the integration and coherence of the industrial chain, which also leads to waste of energy resources. Fourth is the issue of control in energy and resource-based enterprises; unlike developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan, which focus on purchasing energy storage for sustainable development, the situation in China is one where economic growth is pursued at the expense of excessive extraction, processing, and waste of energy resources. Countermeasures: First, in terms of project approval. **It is necessary to ensure the effective delegation of approval processes, while at the same time enabling higher-level departments such as those at the regional and provincial levels to maintain overall balance in project capacity. This includes ensuring balance in the total capacity of projects, distributing capacity across different geographical areas appropriately, and achieving a proper match between the capacities of upstream and downstream industries, thereby reducing waste of energy and resources. Second, project construction enterprises must strengthen their sense of responsibility. Whether they are central enterprises, state-owned enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, joint ventures, or private businesses, all should give due importance to corporate social responsibility. When undertaking projects, they must do them well; for the happiness of future generations, they should not pursue economic gains at the expense of resource depletion and environmental pollution. Third is the promotion of energy-saving technologies. Capable technical teams from domestic research institutions, design firms, manufacturing enterprises, etc., are actively developing energy-saving and environmental protection technologies for this industry, while also working to facilitate their industrialization and commercialization ； **Appropriate incentive and subsidy policies should be introduced to encourage enterprises to actively adopt energy-saving and environmental protection technologies, as well as to promote the marketization of such technologies. Fourth is the aspect of enterprise project construction. **Since the authority for project approval has been delegated, the local authorities can form expert groups or engage certain advisory panels of experts to conduct comprehensive evaluations of entire industrial chain-related projects, rather than evaluating individual enterprises or projects separately. This approach ensures effective integration between different industries, which in turn can be taken into consideration when attracting investment ； For example, to produce steel, one could consider coking as a process linked to steel production; from there, chemical projects such as those for producing methanol and liquefied natural gas can be developed, followed by further processing of these chemical products. In this way, it is possible to achieve the highest GDP output using efficient use of resources.