Jan 28 -- The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) is seeking information to better understand industrial priorities for decarbonization, including emerging technologies that could be demonstrated or adopted by the industrial sector. The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to research, development, demonstration, and deployment of technologies to address the technical challenges related to emissions reduction and decarbonization of the U.S. industrial sector. EERE is specifically interested in information on aspects of industrial decarbonization associated with key industrial sectors, including chemicals, iron and steel, food and beverages, and cement, in addition to other manufacturing industries or crosscutting technology areas that would have a substantial level of emissions reduction in the industrial sector. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).
AMO is a technology office within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE). AMO is the only technology development office within the U.S. Government that is dedicated to improving the energy efficiency, material efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness of manufacturers across the industrial sector. The AMO mission is to catalyze research, development, and adoption of energy-related advanced manufacturing technologies and practices to drive U.S. economic competitiveness and energy productivity. To achieve its mission, AMO partners with private and public stakeholders and invests in cost-shared research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of innovative, next generation manufacturing processes and production technologies that will improve efficiency and reduce emissions, reduce industrial waste and reduce the life-cycle energy consumption of manufactured products.
The scope of Industrial Decarbonization and specific topics of interest follow.
To avoid overshooting 1.5 degrees Celsius of global temperature rise, the United States is targeting “net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050“. Industry accounts for almost one-third of the nation’s primary energy use and nearly 30% of energy-related Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission , with refining, chemicals, iron and steel, food products, and cement representing the GHG emitting sectors. This level of energy consumption and GHG emissions represents a need for clean and efficient manufacturing technologies and; therefore, an opportunity for innovation. A significant portion of the U.S. industrial sector is considered “difficult-to-decarbonize”, due in part to the diversity of energy inputs into a wide array of heterogeneous industrial processes and operations. Technology development, demonstration, and deployment that enable emissions reduction in the industrial sector will be critical to achieving the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
The achievement of a low-carbon industrial sector in the United States poses a range of structural and technical challenges. The sheer multitude of materials transformations – from extraction to intermediate and final products – will require a wide range of technology solutions that will have a ripple effect across a variety of industries and their increasingly complex supply chains. Further, anticipated industrial product demand growth of over 30% by 2050 with an associated increase in GHG emissions exceeding 15%5 will only increase the difficulty. Despite these challenges to industrial decarbonization, the industrial sector can improve manufacturing productivity, develop innovative products, increase global competitiveness and meet expanding societal needs for jobs and product accessibility while reducing its carbon dependence (i.e., decarbonizing) and providing community benefits. Because industrial decarbonization could take decades, it is imperative to start now to minimize the cumulative effects of GHG emissions and to catalyze the knowledge needed to implement the transition and meet the 2050 goals.
Due to the abovementioned complexity and urgency for industrial decarbonization, there are many approaches that must be pursued simultaneously. These approaches include: energy efficiency (EE); electrification and low-carbon fuels, feedstocks and energy sources (LCFFES); and carbon capture, utilization & storage (CCUS). As seen in Figure 1, all approaches are expected to provide significant contributions to overall emissions reduction in the industrial sub-sector. Although future emissions benefits from each approach could potentially be roughly equivalent by 2050, the state of technology today varies quite a bit and depends not only on the approach but also on the sector to which it is applied. AMO aims to prioritize industrial decarbonization strategies that are within the scope of its mission and have the largest impact.
The variety in technology needs across various industrial sub-sectors adds another layer of complexity to emissions abatement. The five highest GHG emitting industrial sub-sectors are: iron and steel, chemicals, food and beverage, petroleum refining, and cement. Figure 2 shows their contributions to the overall energy-related emissions in the industrial sector, which collectively account for roughly 62% of manufacturing-related emissions (including associated electricity generation and transmission losses). Process emissions also constitute a considerable portion of GHG emissions in certain industries (e.g., cement, chemicals).
Although some technology needs will be sector-specific, there are other cross-cutting technology improvements that could reduce emissions across multiple sub-sectors. Industrial heating, for example, makes up a significant fraction of the energy consumed by the industrial sector. Traditional fuel-fired industrial (thermal) processes can be inefficient, difficult to control and result in materials and products with compromised quality and performance. Since the heat that drives these processes is overwhelmingly driven by fossil fuels today, industrial heating is also a significant contributor to emissions.
Due to the complexity of industrial decarbonization, many methods must be pursued in parallel and multiple technology options are needed to fit the needs of a diverse industrial sector. The goal of this RFI is to solicit feedback on what approaches, sub-sectors, cross-cutting challenges, or other focus areas are best suited to accelerate the development, demonstration, and adoption of GHG-reducing technologies within the industrial sector.
DE-FOA-0002687 - RFI on Industrial Decarbonization Priorities
https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/FileContent.aspx?FileID=b13276c9-ab08-48b1-8e2b-3db89d4241f7
Notice of RFI:
https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Default.aspx#FoaId74f44f30-b767-4a12-8608-2fd5a45ae0c6
Bloomberg, Biden’s $3.5 Billion Bet on Carbon Capture Was the Easy Part: Now the U.S. has to take a billion tons of CO₂ from the air each year—and get the cost down to $100 a ton. (1/11)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-11/biden-s-3-5-billion-green-investment-on-carbon-capture-was-the-easy-part
Wired, The Quest to Trap Carbon in Stone—and Beat Climate Change (12/28)
https://www.wired.com/story/the-quest-to-trap-carbon-in-stone-and-beat-climate-change/ On a barren lava plateau in Iceland, a new facility is sucking in air and stashing the carbon dioxide in rock. The next step: Build 10,000 more.
