Decarbonizing the hard-to-abate chemical industry will be a key step on the path to reducing emissions. Senior partners Ulrich Weihe, Thomas Weskamp, and colleagues studied more than 20 decarbonization projects in “chemical parks,” or industrial clusters, in countries across Europe. They identified four actions that would do the most to reduce emissions: pursuing steam generation, utilizing residual heat, changing electricity procurement, and improving energy efficiency.
Image description:
A waterfall bar chart shows the share of emissions from the chemical industry in Europe that could be reduced out of the baseline of 100% emissions for 2023. The bars, from left to right, show a reduction of up to 30% from steam generation, up to 15% reduced from heat integration, up to a further 15% from electricity procurement, and finally up to 3% reduced through energy efficiency. If implemented, this could result in emissions reductions of 46–63% in 2023.
Note: Countries included are Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.
End of image description.
To read the article, “Decarbonizing the chemical industry,” April 12, 2023.
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