The world needs a large supply of renewable carbon to replace fossil feedstocks for hard-to-abate sectors like aviation, shipping, chemicals, food and beverage. Arno van den Bos, Karan Kochhar, Luis Janeiro and Francisco Boshell at IRENA present the results of their study to estimate demand, and whether supply can match it through to 2050. The main sources of supply come from alcoholic fermentation, biogas, pulp & paper, and biomass. Each has … [Read more...]
Chemicals Industry needs Sustainable Feedstocks to complete their net-zero journey
The chemicals industry is crucial to decarbonisation because it’s a major supplier of products to other industries. Many are very high profile - such as automotive, construction, food, and personal-care – so scrutiny will be high. It’s why two-thirds of Europe’s largest chemical end users in Europe are committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, and over a third have pledged net-zero targets by 2050. But although chemicals industry … [Read more...]
Biologically produced Ethylene for plastics can become a carbon capture leader
Ethylene is a key component of the world’s vast appetite for plastics. But it’s normally made using fossils as a feedstock, and is energy-intensive to produce. So the chemicals industry has long sought a way to biologically manufacture ethylene. It would be a double-win for clean energy: it would capture CO2 and displace the fossil-based feedstocks. Connor O’Neil at NREL describes new research that makes ethylene in a “one-step” process fuelled … [Read more...]
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