The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced it is funding $135 million for projects designed to reduce carbon emissions in the industrial sector. The funding will support 40 selected projects in 21 states, the DOE reported June 15.
In addition to reducing carbon, the selected projects would "move the nation toward a net-zero emissions economy by 2050 by advancing key transformational and innovative technologies," DOE states in the press release. "Decarbonizing the U.S. industrial sector is an essential component of President Biden’s ambitious clean energy goals and is critical to achieving a clean energy future that benefits all Americans," the release stated.
The DOE in 2022 published its Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap which lays out fundamental measures for lowering industrial emissions and concentrating on five "energy-intensive subsectors" - cement and concrete, chemicals, food and beverage, iron and steel, and petroleum refining - which account for more than 50% of carbon emissions in the industrial sector, the release reported.
The selected projects will be under the direction of 36 universities, companies and National Laboratories, according to the release. The projects will focus on research, development and pilot-scale demonstrations that address emission issues in the specific subsectors and also the forest and paper products sector. The funding is provided by the DOE's Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, the release reports.
Nine projects focused on decarbonizing chemicals will receive $38.3 million to increase energy efficiency and reduce the carbon emissions in producing “high-volume chemicals," the release reports; 10 projects focused on decarbonizing iron and steel will receive $31.9 million to create “advancements that enable decarbonization in ore-based or scrap-based iron and steelmaking operations, and that convert other existing iron and steelmaking ancillary and thermal processes to use clean fuels or electricity."
Three projects focused on decarbonizing food and beverage products will receive $11.4 million to create “technologies that decarbonize process heating operations within the food and beverage sector;” five projects on decarbonizing cement and concrete will receive $16.4 million for “next generation cement formulations and process routes and carbon capture and utilization technologies” to address sources of CO2 emissions, the release reported.
Six projects will receive $16.2 million focused on decarbonizing paper and forest products for “novel paper and wood drying technologies and innovative pulping and paper forming technologies,” and seven projects will receive $20.4 million for cross-sector decarbonization technologies to address common energy and emissions reduction challenges across industrial subsectors, according to the release.
“America’s industrial sector serves as the engine of the U.S. economy, producing many of the products we rely on every day, but also produces a significant amount of the nation’s carbon emissions,” DOE Sec. Jennifer Granholm said in the release. “These projects funded by President Biden’s Investing in American agenda will slash industrial emissions and accelerate next-generation technologies for a clean energy future that’s made in America.”
