Joule
Volume 6, Issue 11, 16 November 2022, Pages 2474-2499
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Review
Technology options and policy design to facilitate decarbonization of chemical manufacturing

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.10.006Get rights and content
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Context & scale

The industrial sector is responsible for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the chemical industry is a major contributor. This paper evaluates the extent to which the production of ammonia, methanol, and ethylene can be decarbonized by using technologies such as low-carbon energy (i.e., low-carbon hydrogen, bio-based inputs, electrification, and nuclear heat), carbon capture coupled with storage or utilization, and demand-side measures. The results indicate that the large-scale adoption of these technologies could abate a significant volume of emissions from chemical production.

Broad implementation of each of these technologies faces unique challenges, namely due to costs and resource availability. Policies that could ease implementation are discussed, including capital treatments, research and development programs, revenue enhancements, resource availability enhancements, trade exposure reduction, infrastructure support, and recycling promotion initiatives.

Summary

This paper reviews technology options to decarbonize the production of ammonia, methanol, and ethylene, which together are responsible for about half of all greenhouse gas emissions from the chemical sector. The potential CO2 abatement of each technology is assessed in terms of the marginal cost of CO2 abated. Based on this analysis, carbon capture and storage (CCS) offers the lowest marginal cost and should be highly emphasized to maximize abatement in the near term. Using low-carbon hydrogen and large-scale process, electrification enables much larger emission abatement volumes, but significant cost reductions are necessary to realize their full potential. Other options assessed, such as the use of bio-based inputs and demand-side measures, also offer sizable abatement, but each faces unique challenges. Targeted policies are identified that can capitalize on the current low-cost technologies in the near term and improve the applicability of currently less-actionable technologies in the long term by addressing barriers of cost, lack of infrastructure, resource availability, and technological maturity.

Keywords

industrial decarbonization
chemicals
ammonia
methanol
ethylene
hydrogen
electrification
carbon capture and storage
CCS
carbon capture and utilization
CCU
recycling
biogas

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