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Article ID: CBB198740865

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

Satoru Kobori (Author)

Technology and Culture
Volume: 63
Issue: 2
Pages: 401-426
Publication date: April 2022
Language: English

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/854003

DOI: 10.1353/tech.2022.0052

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

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Iron and steel Basic oxygen furnaces Technology and society Air pollution Furnaces, Open-Hearth Energy conservation Energy resources and technologies Steel and steel industry 20th century

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

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