Alternative Energy | Sugar Industry | Energy Conservation
 

There are at present eight sugar factories operating in Jamaica producing varying quantities of sugar for export as well as for the domestic market. Total national output of 

Energy Conservation Measures
All the sugar factories in Jamaica convert energy in accordance with a basic cogeneration system, in which Bagasse is used as fuel to run boilers that produce steam, which in turn is used separately to (1) operate a turbine to produce electricity (2) operate cane crushing and other processing machinery, and (3) operate evaporation equipment. Steam is also used in the distilleries operated by some of the factories.

Combustion
With the guidance of SIRI, the industry is now well immersed (more than one year) in a 5 years energy efficiency programme to improve efficiency in boiler combustion process. The main elements are:

(1) Improvement of overall combustion by the installation of air heaters that pre-heat the bagasse before entering the furnace.

(2) Modify furnace area to facilitate the burning of bagasse in suspension,
and

(3) Install dumping grates so that ash falls automatically outside of the system, once generated.

Elements of this programme are already fully operational at Frome, Bernard Lodge, Long Pond and Worthy Park, and although SIRI is not yet in a position to do an interim assessment and reveal the levels of success achieved, it is confident that measurable savings are being realized.

Turbine Operation (planned)
The main routes by which turbune efficiency is to be increased are:

(1) Increase steam pressure to turbines. This is to be achieved by increasing the pressure of the drums to the boilers, and

(2) Convert some turbines to enable multi-stage functioning. This is to enable better utilization of steam.

These retrofits are not yet commonplace in the industry.

Processing
Factories have been trying to improve the efficiency of their evaporation processes by changing the design of the evaporation vessels that they use. Good results have been achieved by using quintuple vessels in place of the usual quadruple vessels. This approach is also quite novel to the industry at present and measured results are still unavailable.

Notably, however, is the fact that improved design of these vessels has contributed also to better heating per unit volume.

Part of a Furnace/Boiler system at the Bernard Lodge Sugar Factory

THE HOTEL SECTOR
Jamaica's Tourism industry is the country's largest earner of foreign exchange, which amounted to US$1,233 million in 1999. In recent years its contribution to GDP has surpassed even the bauxite and alumina industry, which continues to be the largest earner among commodity exports. Most of Jamaica's hotels cater to vacationers although those in Kingston and some other urban areas are customarily thought to be oriented towards catering to the fairly large cadre of business persons visiting the island at any given time. These, however, also account for a high percentage of non-resident Jamaicans that come home as tourists each year.
Aside from the notable resort areas of Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio and Negril, which provides accommodation for the majority of tourists visiting the island from Europe, USA and the rest of the world, every town in Jamaica has a number of hotels. Most of the larger hotels especially those of over 200 rooms are located in the resort areas but Kingston also has relatively large hotels such as the Hilton and the Le Meridian Pegasus each having over 300 rooms.

The local hotel industry now has 13,700 rooms, which is accounted for by 193 large and small properties; 150 of these hotels are members of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association (JHTA). The other 43 are generally small properties with less than 20 rooms and are mostly not catering to tourists.

Energy and Environmental Strategies in Jamaican Hotels
Faced with higher operating costs and an understanding that the typical modern day tourist is well aware of the need to protect the local and world environment, the relevant Associations supported the concept of introducing Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in Jamaican hotels. EMS is a tool by which business organizations establish criteria that enable them to operate at a highly sustainable level which includes the establishment of operating methodologies that conserves energy and protect the environment. The ultimate goal of EMS is the acquisition of official certification by one of the globally recognized certifying organizations, such as the International Organization of Standards (ISO). Under the rubric of ISO, the EMS certification derives from the ISO 14000 series, and is designated ISO 14001.

The EMS certification availed to Jamaican hotels is done under Green Globe International.
The general procedure used towards achieving certification involves:

• The performance of an environmental audit which also involves a critical inspection of energy systems

• Evaluation of the audit results and agreement between the property owners and the standards organization to implement the necessary corrective measures, and

• Supervision by the standards organization in the implementation of the recommended measures.

At the completion of these exercises, the certification is granted. Successful yearly reviews are required to maintain the status.

EMS implementation in Jamaican hotels started in 1997, after the USAID donated funds to undertake what is known as the EAST project. Project grant funds have enabled the performance of environmental audits in several hotels but the subsequent exercises have to be funded by the hotels themselves, and are costly. Since 1997, about eight hotels, principally in Negril, have achieved EMS certification by Green Globe International and several others have been audited and might have achieved the same status if the barrier of high cost did not exist. The continuing aspect of the programme is, however, still encouraging especially since guests have started to give preference to hotels that are EMS certified.

Other Energy Conservation Measures
Private Energy Auditing and Subsequent Retrofitting
A number of hotels such as the Half Moon, Hedonism 11, Grand Lido and Ciboney have had ongoing energy and environmental management programmes that predates the present day national purposefulness in the sector, to achieve better energy efficiency in their operations.

These hotels have collaborated with private engineering firms using their own funds to effect energy conservation measures (ECM) at their properties. As a result they have gained the competitive edge on their competitors by saving significant amounts of money on their energy, water and combustible fuel bills.

the main ECM's that a typical Jamaican hotel may need to install are:

• Electric to solar water heaters retrofit

• Guestroom occupancy sensor energy control device for lights and air conditioners.

• Improvement of air conditioning energy efficiency ratio (EER) with central chilled water cooling systems.

• Alternative energy uses ( e.g. LPG for Electricity) for water heating.

• Air conditioning heat exchanger for water heating.

• Roof insulation.

• Water-cooled refrigeration systems.

• Direct fired, (#4 oil) absorption cooled, 80-100 tons, chilled water system

• Evaporative cooled, 40-100 tons, high efficiency (EER 14) chilled water system

• Power factor controllers

• Screw compressor chillers with refrigerant to water heat exchangers.

• Energy consumption cost is a significant component of a hotel's operation and can influence significantly the profitability of such a facility.

• The major energy components of a hotel's operation are electricity, liquid petroleum gas and diesel fuel. Water added on, completes the list of utilities, all of which can be conserved in use to realize savings.

• Electricity accounts for more than sixty percent (cost basis) of energy use.

• Small hotels (up to 50 rooms) consume more electricity per room than large hotels, as the larger ones tend to utilize fuel-fired systems to meet water-heating needs.

• In both large and small hotels air conditioning, water heating and refrigeration account for over 80% of total electricity consumption.

• A typical hotel's demand for energy peaks in summer and winter months. A recent JTB publication confirms that occupancy is highest in the months of December, January, February and March in the winter period, and July, August and September in the summer period.

Having worked with many hotels in the country for many years towards improving the energy efficiencies of their operations the most profound statements that Mr. Haughton can make at this time is that:

• Up to 40% energy cost savings can be realized if hotels implement all the recommendations arising from an energy audit.

• Very few Jamaican hotels so far have implemented proven ECM's

• Many hotels have refrained from implementing recommended ECM's ostensibly because of cost considerations. However, the concept of Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) can become a reality in the future and if practiced, should increase the commitment in the industry to implement these measures.

THE BAUXITE AND ALUMINA SECTOR
The bauxite and alumina producing industry is the largest commodity export sector in Jamaica, with recorded earnings of over US$316.4 million in 1999. Two types of operations are carried out in this industry:

(1) Mining and export of bauxite, and

(2) Processing of bauxite in (Bayer) refineries that convert it to alumina, which is exported as a white powder. National output of alumina was estimated at 3.8 million tonnes for 2000.

Kaiser Jamaica, located at Discovery Bay, is the only company that mines and exports bauxite only, while the rest, namely, Alcan Jamaica Company, Alumina Partners of Jamaica, and Jamalco are exporters of both products but primarily alumina.

The industry consumes a significant quantity of oil, both for transportation fuel and for its processing activities. In 1999 it consumed 8.74 million barrels of oil or 37.35% of national consumption of oil over the period. The separate companies purchase bulk fuel, which they import themselves under special arrangements with the GOJ that prevailed even before the petroleum sector was liberalized. The oil is usually off-loaded at private ports operated by these companies, and transported overland to refineries by rail.

Kaiser Bauxite Company
The oil demand at this company consist mainly of diesel oil for its locomotives that transport bauxite, fuel for its other vehicles including mining equipment, and heavy oil to facilitate the running of its power generating plant at Discovery Bay. The power generating facility consists of two diesel plants rated at about 9MW each. They are advanced in age but the company has rebuilt the engines over the past five years and is realizing lower heat rates and better overall efficiency in their operations at present. The output of the generators goes primarily to drying bauxite before export and to provide electricity for the office and operations complex.

Alcan Jamaica Company
This is the only company that operates two plants, one located at Kirkvine in Manchester and the other located at Ewarton in St. Catherine. These are also the two oldest refineries operating in the local industry. The combined capacity of the two plants is rated at 1.2 million tonnes of alumina.

The main area of energy conservation pursued by Alcan over the past several years is a complete overhaul of kiln operations in which new and more efficient burners have been retrofitted. This company has for a long time been notable for comparatively efficient use of oil in the production of alumina even by world standards. In this regard, it has outperformed at least one of its local competitors by averaging 2.5 barrels of oil per tonne of alumina consistently. However, it is now believed that Alcan has lagged behind its competitors in making general improvements in plant efficiency over the past few years. This is supported by the present view that whereas its plants were formerly viewed as highly productive in the past, they now have only average ratings.

Alcan, for example, continues to produce its lime from local limestone in much the same way that it has been doing for the past 40 years at Kirkvine, and the lime needs of Ewarton continue to be satisfied by transporting it by rail from Kirkvine.

It is to be noted, however, that Alcan's operations in Jamaica have only recently been awarded with ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems (EMS) certification. This means that certain minimum procedures had to be put in place to meet both environmental and energy efficiency standards.

Alcan's international operations at the smelter and aluminium fabrication levels are still considered to be among the most productive and profitable in the world. It has been reported only recently, however, that the company is negotiating to sell all its assets in Jamaica before the end of 2001. This has fomented significant speculation within the mass media but the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) has explained the action as understandable given the direction in which the global industry is moving at present. Furthermore, it has indicated that completion of the sale may lead to proactive expansion and modernization of the facilities by the new owners.

Alumina Partners of Jamaica.
A consortium of mainly USA based metals companies including Reynolds and Kaiser formerly owned this operation. For a number of years now, however, Kaiser (65%) and Hydro Aluminium (35%) have controlled the company. Its output of alumina competes for world markets.

The refinery was commissioned in 1969, and for many years its overall efficiency was rated below that of other local operations. This situation coupled with a highly competitive world market for alumina in the mid 1980's led to its temporary closure.

The plant was reopened in 1989 after significant re-engineering was completed and new market arrangements made. Significantly, plant efficiency moved overall productivity from an average of 3 barrels of oil per tonne of alumina, to approximately 2.5 barrels of oil per tonne of alumina.

Some of the main measures used to effect energy conservation include the following:

• The digestion process was changed from a high temperature digestion process which resulted in the production of significant excess heat that could not be recovered, to a process of sweetening digestion, in which case the excess heat is utilized to dry bauxite slurry.

• Installation of two new fluid bed calciners which have made calcination much more efficient as compared to when rotary calciners alone were used.

• Cleaning of liquor heaters more frequently than before which makes them more efficient

• Burners for boilers changed to more efficient ones

• Application of opacity standard to stack emissions. This has ensured that there is now rapid response to the need for maintenance of thermal systems.

Alpart has also been purchasing significant quantities of the lime it uses, from local suppliers, namely Western Cement Company. This has resulted in a reduction of the unit cost of lime to the plant. Indeed, bauxite companies are specialists in the production of alumina and related products; not lime.

One of the shortcomings of the Alpart operations is the fact that the 60Hertz electricity generation plant rated at about 57MW, which uses a considerable amount of steam, has not been retrofitted to operate at lower heat rates.

Jamalco
This plant was constructed in the 1970's and over the years has been subjected to considerable expansion. It is largely owned by the GOJ at present after it obtained majority shares from Alcoa Minerals of America, which constructed and operated the plant in the first place.

This operation has always been the most modern alumina producing facility in Jamaica, and since its first bout of expansion and rehabilitation, it has become the most efficient.

Most of the normal present day procedures to enable energy efficiency in the plant's operations have been employed in recent years. These include retrofitting of calciners and boilers primarily by the installation of state of the art burners, the use of opacity standards for stack emissions and the application of more rigorous maintenance procedures.

It has also:

• Discontinued its own lime production and is now purchasing lime exclusively from Rugby International, which recently commissioned a modern quarrying and lime production operation situated close to the Jamalco operations.

• Installed a new cogeneration facility that generates steam and electricity
  for its own operations and also sells 12 MW of power to the JPSCo.

All these measures have enabled Jamalco to remain as the most efficient producer of alumina in Jamaica at present. On average it uses 2.3 barrels
of oil to produce 1 tonne of alumina which is better than the local industry average of 2.5 barrels oil to 1 tonne of alumina.

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