Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction potentials in sugar production processes in Thailand

Sugarcane is one of the most promising sources of green energy for a major sugar producing country like Thailand. Any efforts to improve energy efficiency in sugar industry would result for green energy production and more avoided GHG emissions. This paper assesses the potentials for energy saving and GHG emission reduction in sugar production in Thailand. It is found that there is a wide gap between the most efficient mills and the less efficient ones among the country's 47 mills, with specific steam consumption ranging from 400 to 646 kg steam/ton cane. Thus significant potential exists for energy saving and GHG emission reduction in many mills, using some of the 17 commonly common technologies/measures identified. For the nine mills studied, which could have resulted in a combined saving savings of 23-32% of the total mill energy consumption, further savings of 5-14% could be achieved.