Transformation

Transformation is the process where part or all of the energy content of a product entering a process moves from this product to one or more different products leaving the process. Examples include coking coal transformed into coke, crude oil transformed into oil products, and fuel oil transformed into electricity [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.18, PDF p. 71, 2018].

Transformation is one of the destinations an energy product reaches once produced or transformed: alongside export, storage, international bunkering, energy-industries own use, and final consumption [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.4, PDF p. 68, 2018]. Secondary production (Production) is, by definition, the output side of a transformation process [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.10, PDF p. 69, 2018].

Transformation processes play a vital role in the flow of energy through an economy: they ensure that primary energy products that cannot be directly or effectively utilized are changed into other energy products more suitable for consumption. Identifying such processes precisely is necessary to describe and analyse energy transformation and to assess the resources needed to carry it out. In energy balances, transformation processes are reflected in the rows of the transformation block [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.68, PDF p. 76, 2018].

Two groups of transformation processes

From the point of view of energy statistics, a transformation process is the movement of part or all of the energy content of a product entering the process to one or more different products leaving the process. There are two groups:

(a) Physical or chemical conversion of a product into another product or products whose intrinsic properties differ from those of the original product. Examples:

• chemical or physical changes to the input product(s) resulting in the creation of products containing new chemical compounds (e.g., refining);
• physical changes to the input product(s) resulting in a separation into several different products with intrinsic physical properties different from those of the input material (e.g., coke oven carbonization of coal);
• conversion of heat into electricity; and
• production of heat from combustion or electricity.

(b) Aggregation or blending of products, sometimes involving a change of physical shape. Examples:

• blending of gases to meet safety and quality requirements before distribution to consumers; and
• briquetting of peat and brown coal.

[IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.69, PDF p. 76, 2018]

Transformation plants

These transformation processes are currently identified by the plants in which they occur: electricity plants, CHP plants, heat plants, coke ovens, coal liquefaction plants, patent fuel plants, brown coal briquette plants, gas works (and other conversion to gases), GTL plants, blast furnaces, oil refineries, charcoal plants, peat briquette plants, natural gas blending plants, petrochemical plants, and other transformation processes not elsewhere classified [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.70, PDF pp. 76–77, 2018]. Most of these plants are already described under Table 5.1’s energy industries; three plants that appear only under Table 5.1’s “other energy industry not elsewhere specified” residual category are described separately below [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.71, PDF p. 77, 2018]:

• Peat briquette plants are plants manufacturing peat briquettes [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.72, PDF p. 77, 2018].
• Natural gas blending plants are plants, separate from gas works, in which substitute natural gas (gas works gas), petroleum gases or biogases are mixed with natural gas for distribution in the gas mains. Where blending of substitute natural gas with natural gas takes place within gas works, the blending is considered part of the gas works process [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.73, PDF p. 77, 2018].
• Petrochemical plants convert hydrocarbon feedstock (usually obtained from a refinery — naphtha, ethane, propane, middle distillate oils) into organic chemicals, intermediate compounds and finished products such as plastics, fibres, solvents and surfactants. Certain byproducts are returned to the refinery (e.g. pyrolysis gasoline) or burned for fuel to provide heat and electricity for the plant’s own cracking and other processes. Because energy transformation is not the principal activity of petrochemical plants, they do not belong to energy industries and, as a group, are treated as energy consumers instead — though the energy transformation they perform is still reflected in the middle block of the energy balance [IRES, Ch. V, para. 5.74, PDF p. 77, 2018].

Related

• IRES Chapter V — Energy Flows — the chapter digest this page supports
• Production — secondary production is the output of transformation
• Losses — losses distinguished from the transformation process itself
• Energy Industries — the economic units whose principal activity is, in large part, transformation
• Energy Consumers — petrochemical plants perform transformation but are classified here, not as energy industries