What is energy efficiency and emission reduction potential in the Iranian petrochemical industry?

In this study, the prospects of energy efficiency potential, clean development mechanism (CDM) and carbon income up to and beyond 2012 are investigated in the petrochemical industries of Iran as a major oil-producing country. This paper is to address four questions of: (1) the GHGs emission in Iranian petrochemical complexes, (2) the most energy-consuming processes, (3) units with the highest energy efficiency potentials and (4) potentials of CDM or similar carbon projects based on post-2012 scenarios. The petrochemical processes are investigated in two categories of non-polymeric and polymeric productions. Based on capital expenditure, economic saving, simple payback period, CO2 equivalent emissions, and the level of technology transfer, the attractiveness of energy efficiency measures is assessed and CDM potentials are investigated. Meanwhile, the impact of the recently deregulation of national energy-prices is examined. The results reveal that the three main non-polymeric (ammonia, urea and methanol) processes in Iran offer the most opportunity for energy efficiency improvement and carbon-market potentials followed by the polymeric processes in units with outdated technology. The studied petrochemical units indicate over 2.53 million tons CO2-eq/year potential reduction in GHGs emission and natural gas conservation of 1100 million-m(3)/year. Nonetheless, more detailed energy-auditing for the entire Iranian petrochemicals is required for a comprehensive analysis. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.