Article ID: CBB198740865

When Energy Efficiency Begets Air Pollution: Fuel Conservation in Japan's Steel Industry, 1945–60 (April 2022)

unapi

Satoru Kobori (Author)


Technology and Culture
Volume: 63
Issue: 2
Pages: 401-426


Publication Date: April 2022
Edition Details: Special Issue - Industry in Common: Thinking Globally with Modern Japan
Language: English

Between 1945 and 1960, Japan had some of the most energy-efficient iron and steel industries in the world. Two technologies—heat management and oxygen steelmaking—were key enablers of significant energy conservation, an industrial success story commonly attributed to Japan's post–World War II development. Contrary to current understanding, both technologies had deep pre–World War II roots. Their development accelerated after the war through institutionalized exchanges of experience and expertise among Japanese companies. However, these energy conservation technologies had unintended and little-known consequences: they were a major source of air pollution. This article provides two correctives. First, energy conservation technologies took longer to develop than previously thought. Second, saving energy can dramatically increase an industry's environmental footprint. Japan's industrial experience provides an example of how the road to air pollution hell was paved with the best energy conservation intentions.

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Associated with

Article Aleksandra Kobiljski (April 2022) The Global Industrial Now. Technology and Culture (pp. 309-325). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB198740865/

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Authors & Contributors
Möllers, Nina
Zachmann, Karin
Marco Venanzi
Neto, Marta Martins
Balzhiser, Richard
Reihana Mohideen
Concepts
Technology and society
Energy resources and technologies
Steel and steel industry
Technology
Air pollution
Technology and economics
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Europe
Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania)
Argentina
Portugal
Norway
Institutions
Chicago World's Fair
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