There is a danger that the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies for hydrogen production (defined in provision 45V) may create perverse incentives that do not reduce emissions and may increase them. James Sallee at the Energy Institute at Haas explains why. The goal is to make “green” hydrogen powered by newly built clean energy. But what if the generously subsidised hydrogen is made from clean energy (new or not) that should be powering … [Read more...]
Industry’s EU ETS reforms and CBAM: how firms can turn the rising cost of carbon into competitive advantage
Changes to the EU ETS mean free emissions allowances (EUAs) for industry will be gradually phased out as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’s (CBAM) CO2-related levy will be inversely phased in. It means the carbon costs for industry in the EU will significantly rise. Pablo Ruiz at Rabobank takes a deep dive to assesses the magnitude of these changes and their implications for the main industrial sectors, and the main change drivers for … [Read more...]
U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: one year on, a summary of impressive progress in the energy transition
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has been described as unprecedented in its ambition for the nation’s energy transition. One year on from the passing of the bill in August 2022, Hannah Perkins and Adam Aston at RMI describe the progress on implementation as unprecedented too. The authors break their review down into categories: clean tech manufacturing, electrifying transport, greening buildings, decarbonising electricity, transforming industry, … [Read more...]
Germany plans for Carbon Capture in Industry: emissions, potentials, costs
In the first article of this series, Simon Göss and Hendrik Schuldt at carboneer gave the background to Germany’s new drive for carbon capture, and summarised the industrial sectors that will be its focus. Here, the authors analyse the emission profiles of German industries (in particular: steel, cement, lime, chemicals, waste incineration) and the associated CCS potentials and costs. The first thing to note is that it’s the process emissions … [Read more...]
Rooftop Solar for industry: up to 35% of U.S. manufacturing sectors could supply all their own power
Rooftop solar could supply the complete electricity needs of 5-35% of U.S. manufacturing sectors, explains Matthew Eckelman at Northeastern University who summarises his co-authored paper “Technical feasibility of powering U.S. manufacturing with rooftop solar PV”. At present, only 0.1% of industrial electricity demand in the U.S. is supplied by on-site sources of renewable energy. But large, unobstructed industrial rooftops and the declining … [Read more...]
Carbon Capture: how all Germany’s captured CO2 can be used by the Chemical industry
The German government is promising to publish a strategy on carbon capture, opening a door that has previously been closed to developing this technology. In the first of a series of articles, Simon Göss and Hendrik Schuldt at carboneer look at why the nation is changing its mind, before laying out the reasons why carbon capture will be essential for Germany to meet its emissions goals. Unlike the power grid, there’s no easy way to decarbonise … [Read more...]
Iron and Steel: how can Hydrogen and Direct Electrification replace fossil-based production?
Karan Kochhar, Luis Janeiro and Francisco Boshell at IRENA look at the decarbonisation of iron and steel. They account for about 7% of global energy–related carbon emissions. The authors explain what’s needed for green hydrogen and direct green electrification to take over from traditional fossil-based production. Many projects are in the pipeline, and the authors reference case studies like H2 Green Steel, SIDERWIN and Boston Metal. Though that … [Read more...]
“Battery Passports”: ensuring environmental sustainability, decarbonisation and mining labour rights
With battery production taking off, concerns are focussed on environmental sustainability, carbon footprint and labour rights where the raw materials are mined. Benedikt Sobotka, Co-Chair at the Global Battery Alliance and Robin Zeng, CEO at Chinese manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology, writing for WEF, describe the concept of the digital “battery passport” where compliance with the rules is certified and monitored throughout the life … [Read more...]
Steel, Aluminium: 20% of emissions reductions target must come from Recycling. How?
Recycling is needed to achieve 20% of the emissions reductions targets for the steel and aluminium sectors. It’s an integral part of the 1.5°C climate-aligned decarbonisation pathways in many metal sectors, explain Sravan Chalasani, Wenjuan Liu and Lachlan Wright at RMI. For aluminium products, the share that comes from post-consumer scrap needs to increase from 21% in 2020 to 46% by 2050. Recycling is already a reality, but reporting and … [Read more...]
The history of evidence of CO2-driven climate change starts in the mid-1800s
Marc Hudson at the University of Sussex gives us a fascinating review of the history of climate change science. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988, experimental evidence that CO2 traps heat dates back to the mid-1800s. The first predictions of global warming caused by humans came in 1895. The big change in perception took place in 1953. Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass (an academic whose career also … [Read more...]
How can Europe stop U.S. and China dominance of cars and batteries without being protectionist?
European and Chinese car and battery makers are making plans to set up plants in the U.S. to take advantage of their big new “made in the USA” subsidies. They can then ship their vehicles to Europe to sell into its very large and generously subsidised company car market. This puts electric vehicle production in Europe at a serious disadvantage. As William Todts at T&E explains, the EU must respond, instead of effectively assisting the U.S. … [Read more...]
Turning Ethanol production’s CO2 by-product into E-Fuels using Wind power
With vast open spaces, Midwest states in the U.S. produce millions of gallons of ethanol from corn as well as thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity from wind farms every year. Research led by NREL is working on using wind power to drive electrolysers that turn the ethanol’s CO2 by-product into e-fuels, explains Erik Ringle at NREL. A typical 50 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant releases 14 tons of CO2, a natural by-product of … [Read more...]
IEA’s global “CO2 Emissions in 2022” report: by sector, fuel, region, heating +more
The IEA has published “CO2 Emissions in 2022”, giving estimates of CO2 emissions from all energy sources and industrial processes globally. Emissions from energy combustion increased by 423 Mt, while emissions from industrial processes decreased by 102 Mt. Emissions from various sources (sector, fuel, region, heating, etc.) are broken down, with reasons for why the change happened. The report is part of the IEA’s first global stocktake of the … [Read more...]
Adding ordinary baking soda to concrete production can cut 15% of its CO2 emissions
Concrete production makes up 8% of global CO2 emissions. Half comes from the fossil energy used to make it (which, hopefully, can transition to clean power), and the other half comes from the CO2 that escapes during the chemical transformation. David Chandler at MIT describes research there that shows how simply adding sodium bicarbonate (yes, the baking soda you put in your cookies) during the early stages of production can remove, by … [Read more...]
Hydrogen’s innovation pipeline: signals strong ahead of World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam, May 9-11, 2023
The IEA and the European Patents Office have, for the first time, reported on patents filed worldwide to get a measure of the innovations we’re seeing in the hydrogen sector, summarised here by Ian Shine. Overall, Europe and Japan are leading. Although the U.S. is a close third, with 20% of the total, their filings have declined compared to the previous decade. The fastest growth is in China (15.2%) and South Korea (12.2%). There has been a … [Read more...]
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