Development of energy benchmarking based on process consumption for the plastics industry in Vietnam

Plastics industry is one of the largest energy-consuming sectors in Vietnam. In this work, we propose and develop a methodology to formulate energy benchmarking for the industry. We investigate the energy benchmarking for three sub-sectors of plastics which comprise plastic packaging (plastic bags, bottles, sheet/sacks), household technical plastics, and construction plastics. The energy benchmarking is established based on specific energy consumption (SEC) in the process. The study results reveal the difference both in SEC levels and the ranges of SEC of various subsectors. The outcome of the research shows that the plastic bottle has the widest range of SEC between 0.18 and 3.35 kWh/kg. In contrast, the narrowest variation of SEC is in the construction and plastic bag. Two these sub-sectors also have a lower medium of energy efficiency index, at 0.48 and 0.49 kWh/kg, respectively. From the energy benchmarking results and the sub-sectors scale, the estimated energy-saving potential of the plastic bag is fingered out as the highest energy potential group at 148 million kWh.