Industrial decarbonisation refers to the transition of the industrial sector from the use of fossil fuels to less carbon intensive sources of fuel, as well as for their processes to release fewer greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. This will help minimise the impact of the industrial sector on our planet and reduce negative externalities. An externality is a positive or negative consequence of an action that affects someone without affecting the person who did the original action. In this case, pollution caused by industries negatively impacts planetary warming, health outcomes, biodiversity, etc. causing poor outcomes and imposing costs on people and other living beings. Externalities are not reflected in costs to the entity that executed the original act, but either benefit or impose costs on bystanders.
Industries emitted 4.1 GtCO2-eq or 24% of global emissions in 2019. This figure does not take emissions from their use of power and heat, which raises the figure to 20 GtCO2-eq or 34%. However, direct fuel use emissions from industrial activities were found to have decreased to 7 GtCO2-eq, 50% of direct industrial emissions (of the 4.1 GtCO2-eq) in 2019.1
The authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 6th assessment report had high confidence that “Net zero CO2 emissions from the industrial sector are possible but challenging”, and stated that while energy efficiency will continue to be important, switching production to less energy intensive processes is vital. The report further states that industrial emissions have been growing faster since 2000 than emissions in any other sector, driven by increased basic materials (raw material, such as those extracted through mining or forestry, etc. used in the industrial sector) extraction and production1
Innovation and accounting are the backbones of decarbonisation, and any sustainability strategy, here are some available to those wish to pursue decarbonisation:
i. Energy efficiency – Reducing energy consumption reduces emissions, and happily, reduces production costs.
ii. Using low carbon energy sources – Using clean energy sources for all or part of the production process, such as equipment powered by electricity rather than traditional fuels (think gas burners vs. induction stove tops- the latter removes fossil fuel from the equation, except for what is used at source to produce the electricity).
iii. Greater supply chain accountability – While addressing Scope 3 emissions are egregiously challenging, organisations taking care of their S1 and S2 emissions while working with their supply chain partners to address their S1 and S2 emissions will help minimise S3 for the entire chain.
iv. Targeting Scope 4 – Any industrial decarbonisation strategy must embrace innovating to increase S4 emissions, which are emissions avoided that would otherwise have been made if the current prevalent technology, was used. For example, if a motion triggered lighting system in hospital corridors is more energy efficient than one which is left switched on the entire time. The emissions avoided due to the development and use of motion sensing lights are an example of S4 emissions. Work from home, or using video conferencing technology instead of working daily from office, or traveling for meetings are other contemporary examples.
v. Reducing energy losses – According to the USEIA, more than 60% energy is lost to conversion.3 When fuel is burnt for producing heat, which is then used indirectly to produce electricity- for example, burning coal (level 1 – stored chemical energy to thermal energy) to heat water to produce steam (level 2 – thermal energy used to change the state of water from liquid to gas) to power turbines (level 3 – thermal energy to mechanical energy) to run a generator rotor to produce electricity (level 4 – Mechanical energy to electricity) – energy is lost to various inefficiencies such as incomplete chemical conversion of the raw material to heat, friction, heat loss, transition losses, electrical losses, and so on. These losses are significantly reduced when renewable energy is used to power turbines, but grid dependent industries will receive their electricity after transmission and distribution (T&D) losses.
Industries can help address this by using better captive technologies such as Trigeneration, also known as Combined Heating Cooling and power (CHPC), which uses natural gas as a fuel source (I know) to produce electricity, and uses the waste heat to produce heating (say for heating buildings or for process heating) and refrigeration (through vapor absorption refrigeration systems) as required. Of course, this way the organisation will have greater control over its power source, and low grid-dependence- and no T&D losses.
v. Using artificial intelligence – artificial intelligence can identify redundancies in our systems, and find where and how we can reduce emissions through our industrial supply chains. Whether the suggestions are usable or not is for humans to decide once the computers have done their work.
Lastly, I’ve seen a lot of content advocating for Carbon Capture and related technologies/ processes, but I don’t quite understand them yet, and I do think abatement is better than storage. Also trees already do capture and use carbon, and perhaps we can just increase the global natural forest coverage.
I’d love to go into industry specific strategies in further posts, so stay tuned for those posts.
Sources:
2. World Bank data on global T&D losses, 2014
3. More than 60% of energy used for electricity generation is lost in conversion
Chasing Tales 