DOE Must Use Its Industrial Demonstrations Program Strategically

Heavy Industry and the Path to Sustainable Development

Heavy industry presents a climate paradox. Industrial materials like cement, steel, and aluminum are foundational for our economy and constitute the building blocks of our clean energy future. At the same time, heavy industry is a significant source of U.S. and global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and without action, the industrial sector will soon become the leading source of domestic GHG emissions.

Fortunately, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) included game-changing new investments for industrial decarbonization. With application deadlines approaching for some of these funding streams, it is time to focus on the plans and strategies for deploying these funds, driving innovation, and defining our pathway toward industrial decarbonization. 

Strategies for Industrial Decarbonization

To meet climate targets, we must use new funding from IRA and BIL strategically to simultaneously pursue two separate industrial decarbonization strategies. First, we must rapidly deploy commercially available renewable energy, energy efficiency, and decarbonization technologies across facilities of all sizes. Second, we must support early-stage deployments of advanced, pre-commercial technologies that have the potential to significantly reduce or even eliminate emissions from industrial manufacturing.

Among the IRA and BIL funding, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstration’s (OCED) $6.3 billion Industrial Demonstrations Program is uniquely situated to support early-stage deployments of advanced, pre-commercial technologies. To ensure OCED is making the most of its limited funding, it should focus on high-impact projects in critical sectors like steel, cement, and aluminum, which require advanced technologies to deeply decarbonize.

Cement/Concrete

Cement is the main ingredient in concrete, the most-used human-generated material on earth. Production of cement is a significant contributor to climate change; if cement were a country, it would be the world’s fourth-largest emitter of CO2 behind China, the United States, and India. 

Roughly 60 percent of the emissions from cement production result from the chemical process of calcination, during which limestone is heated to 1,400°C in a kiln. The process releases CO2 from the rock and produces clinker, a stony residue that is ground and combined with other ingredients to make cement. The remaining 40 percent of emissions come from burning fossil fuels to heat the kiln. Near-term solutions to cement’s climate problem exist, like improving plant energy efficiency and partially replacing traditional cement with low-carbon alternatives. However, even in combination, these solutions cannot eliminate emissions from cement production. At least 30 percent of cement’s emissions (often more) will remain unaffected and continue to be emitted into the atmosphere.

Emerging technologies have the potential to become game-changers in the cement sector and result in zero-carbon (or even negative-emission) cement. In particular, OCED should consider the following technologies that have the potential to produce near-zero-carbon cement: 

• Carbon capture and storage: Full decarbonization of existing cement plants will require the deployment of carbon capture to abate process emissions resulting from the calcination of limestone. Some captured carbon can be stored in concrete or be permanently sequestered underground. Carbon capture is a well-understood technology and has been deployed in targeted sectors. A pilot cement facility with carbon capture is under development in Europe. 
• Alternative cement inputs: Cement today is made using limestone as an input, which releases CO2 when heated. Replacing limestone with alternative inputs that do not contain carbon, such as calcium silicate rock, can eliminate the process emissions associated with traditional cement and produce an identical product with equal performance. Producing cement from calcium silicate rock is newly technically proven, but the technology is still pre-commercial. 
• Electrochemical processes: Conventional cement production relies on fossil fuel–fired kilns. Novel, pre-commercial processes like electrochemical calcination use electricity to induce chemical reactions that break down limestone or other calcium-bearing minerals into their constituent parts to produce near-zero-emissions cement without combustion.

Steel

Steel is the most-used metal in the world by mass, and demand for steel is projected to increase from about 1,880 million tonnes in 2020 to as much as 2,500 million tonnes by 2050. At current production levels, steel accounts for roughly 7 to 8 percent of global CO2 emissions.

There are relatively low-emissions processes for recycling steel, and opportunities to increase recycling and effectively decarbonize the electricity used to power recycling processes should be pursued. However, production of “primary steel” from raw iron ore will be necessary to meet total steel demand through 2050. The dominant production method today for primary steel requires burning coke (a fuel derived from coal) to chemically reduce iron ores at temperatures of up to 2,300°C. Decarbonizing the sector will require either replacing coke or otherwise abating emissions from steel, and both of these decarbonization pathways will require deployment of relatively early-stage technologies. 

The high emissions intensity of steel coupled with the nascent technologies needed for emissions abatement make primary steel production a particularly compelling target for support under OCED’s Industrial Demonstrations Program. 

In particular, OCED should consider three pathways for decarbonization of primary steel production: 

• Direct reduction of iron using green hydrogen: Significant reductions in emissions from primary steelmaking can be achieved by replacing the dominant production method that requires coke with a process that runs on 100 percent hydrogen. To the extent that the hydrogen is green—produced from water using renewable electricity—the process would result in nearly emissions-free steel. The use of green hydrogen in steelmaking is a technically proven production method, and all major European steel players have received government support to build or test the technology. 
• Molten oxide electrolysis: Mol

  SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

  SDGs Addressed:

  • SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
  • SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 13: Climate Action

  Targets Identified:

  • Target 7.2: Increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix
  • Target 9.4: Upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable
  • Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning

  Indicators:

  • Indicator for Target 7.2: Proportion of total energy consumption from renewable sources
  • Indicator for Target 9.4: CO2 emissions per unit of value added in manufacturing industries
  • Indicator for Target 13.2: Number of countries that have communicated their national climate change plans

  Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

  SDGs	Targets	Indicators
  SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy	Target 7.2: Increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix	Proportion of total energy consumption from renewable sources
  SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure	Target 9.4: Upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable	CO2 emissions per unit of value added in manufacturing industries
  SDG 13: Climate Action	Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning	Number of countries that have communicated their national climate change plans

  Analysis:

  1. The issues highlighted in the article are connected to the following SDGs:

  – SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, as the article discusses the need to rapidly deploy renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies in the industrial sector.

  – SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, as the article focuses on the decarbonization of heavy industries like cement, steel, and aluminum.

  – SDG 13: Climate Action, as the article emphasizes the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sector to meet climate targets.

  2. The specific targets under these SDGs that can be identified based on the article’s content are:

  – Target 7.2: Increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, as the article mentions the need to deploy renewable energy technologies in industrial facilities.

  – Target 9.4: Upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, as the article discusses the need for advanced, pre-commercial technologies to decarbonize the cement, steel, and aluminum sectors.

  – Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning, as the article calls for policymakers to advance policies to jump-start investments and plans for industrial decarbonization.

  3. The indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets are:

  – Indicator for Target 7.2: Proportion of total energy consumption from renewable sources, which can be used to track the increase in the share of renewable energy in the industrial sector.

  – Indicator for Target 9.4: CO2 emissions per unit of value added in manufacturing industries, which can be used to measure the sustainability of industrial processes and their impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

  – Indicator for Target 13.2: Number of countries that have communicated their national climate change plans, which can be used to assess the integration of climate change measures into national policies and strategies.

  These indicators can help track progress towards the targets and provide insights into the effectiveness of the strategies and investments mentioned in the article.

  Overall, the article highlights the importance of addressing climate change in the industrial sector and identifies specific targets and indicators that can be used to measure progress towards sustainable development goals. By focusing on renewable energy deployment, infrastructure upgrades, and policy integration, it is possible to achieve decarbonization and contribute to a more sustainable future.

  Behold! This splendid article springs forth from the wellspring of knowledge, shaped by a wondrous proprietary AI technology that delved into a vast ocean of data, illuminating the path towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Remember that all rights are reserved by SDG Investors LLC, empowering us to champion progress together.

  Source: nrdc.org

   

  

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