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In early 2013, a global energy efficiency program was launched, as part of ICL’s corporate-wide ACE (Ambition Creates Excellence) efficiency program. For this purpose, the Company developed a standard methodology to be applied at all its sites, that includes creating an energy efficiency skill base within the Company. Efficiency projects range from Company-wide programs that teach energy management and conservation methodologies, to optimizing production equipment and raising awareness of energy conservation among ICL’s employees and contractors.
The ACE program delivers significant operational and maintenance savings, as well as quality improvements, beyond its core environmental aims of reducing fuel and electricity consumption together with GHG emissions.
By the end of 2020, 28 of ICL’s largest production facilities around the world implemented this methodology. During the first half of Q1 2020, the ACE program undertook one refresher visit to the ICL plant in Ladenburg, Germany.
Unfortunately, rolling out the methodology across two further sites, that were scheduled to be undertaken for the first time in 2020, was postponed due to the pandemic. These have been rescheduled for the end of 2021 and early 2022, (Covid-19 restrictions permitting). In spite of the restrictions that the pandemic placed on the ACE Program’s activity in 2020, it continued in a fully remote mode and delivered over $10 million of additional energy cost savings compared to 2019.
The main efficiency projects implemented to date include:
In addition, ICL actively improves the awareness and behavior of employees, at all levels of the organization, regarding energy use and avoiding waste.
As part of the ACE program, the Company is implementing new and improved mandatory internal energy management systems. Individual ICL sites are either accredited ISO 50001 by external accreditors (mandatory at ICL’s largest energy consuming sites) or by an internal Energy Management System assessed by an internal verification panel (small and medium energy consuming sites). All major energy consuming sites have been accredited to ISO 50001 or the internal standard. In total, 14 out of 17 planned ICL’s largest sites have been accredited to ISO which are accountable for approximately 90% of ICL’s total global energy consumption.
In 2020 ICL issued an updated Energy Policy which applied to all of its global production sites. The policy focuses on energy efficiency practices and management systems described on this page, while the recent update also details ICL’s steps towards implementation of renewable energy deployment.
Throughout 2020, the ICL ACE process has integrated regular monitoring and reporting of GHG reductions with implemented and proposed energy savings projects, in addition to already monitored energy (MWh) and monetary KPIs. The current goal is to have all major projects analyzed for their GHG impact in 2021. This step was undertaken as part of ICL’s updated goals for GHG reduction and climate change mitigation.
Given the increasing importance of managing and minimizing GHG emissions, the ACE program’s methodology is being evolved to not only consider energy efficiency, but also carbon emission reduction opportunities. This evolution is expected to progress through 2021 to encompass the management and minimization of all greenhouse gases (i.e. not just those resulting from the consumption of energy, but also those from processes, refrigeration systems, etc.).
ICL’s ACE energy efficiency plan has so far reduced energy expenses by approximately $84 million overall between 2013-20, compared to the 2012 base year. The specific savings in 2020 were approximately $10 million compared to 2019. The current goal is to achieve a further $7 million of savings in 2021 compared with 2020. Cumulative energy savings since the Energy Centre of Excellence began operating in 2005 are estimated at approximately $190 million (not including savings from the transition to natural gas).
Some energy cost saving initiatives do not necessarily reduce the actual quantity of energy consumed. For example: adapting production and/or maintenance schedules to increase usage of lower tariff energy supplies or converting from fuel oil to natural gas.
ICL's goal is to achieve annual year-over-year improvement of energy intensity in over 50% of all product-based intensity KPI's.
To ensure that the ACE plan delivers reductions in energy terms, and as part of the requirements of ISO 50001, ICL uses product-based energy intensity Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). These KPI’s, measured in terms of MWh/tonne produced, are tracked for about 60 key products. These are products that either have high production tonnages or high energy consumption. However, the energy consumption of a production line does not always correlate directly to production. Some explanations include:
For each product monitored, ICL creates an energy intensity curve based on long-time performance (see examples below). In these examples, the blue data points are historical averages from previous years and the red data points illustrate data for the most recent quarter. An improvement in the KPI is achieved if the quarterly reported intensity is below the nominal curve, and a setback is considered if the intensity is located above the curve.
Improving energy efficiency can go beyond ICL’s operational boundaries and include external partners working together with ICL on energy savings. Ramat-Negev energy is a privately owned natural-gas based power plant located in Neot-Hovav near the ICL Bromine Compounds site. Since early 2019, ICL Neot-Hovav purchases low-pressure steam from Ramat-Negev energy. This steam is a by-product of the electricity generation process in Ramat-Negev that was previously not utilized. The new externally purchased steam replaces most of the steam that ICL Neot-Hovav previously generated in its own boilers, significantly reducing the site’s natural gas consumption. For Ramat-Negev, the increased usage of their steam increases their plant’s energy conversion efficiency, and it is now considered a CHP (combined heat and power) plant. The combined effect of the sites' collaboration is a significant increase in their overall efficiency, and a reduction in their shared GHG and other emissions.
At ICL’s Dead Sea site, the Bromine - Chlorine plant produces Bromine and Chlorine for various industrial needs. During the chemical production process, hydrogen is created. Until recently, the hydrogen that was not used in the production process or sold as compressed hydrogen was released to the atmosphere. As part of an overall air emissions reduction initiative that required the incineration of certain gases, it was decided to use the hydrogen by-product as fuel (which has no emissions other than water vapor), instead of natural gas (a fossil fuel). This enabled the Bromine-Chlorine plant to reduce its air emissions without adding emissions that occur when burning fossil fuels.
