A foundation for industrial decarbonization

Climate change, fueled by global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, demands urgent action to reduce carbon emissions. The process industries are a major contributor, and across all sectors, decarbonization efforts have a strong potential to reduce emissions by reaching net-zero goals by 2050. If the carbon-heavy industries in aggregate can cut their emissions in half - an achievable goal within the next few decades - it will reduce global emissions by nearly 15%. 

Building the foundation for industrial decarbonization will require global leadership and coordination in every industrial sector as well as massive and targeted investments in innovative, clean and emerging technologies, such as hydrogen and other alternative fuels.

The overall energy sector - including electricity, heat and transportation - is responsible for about three quarters of GHG emissions globally. Energy use in industry accounts for approximately a third of the total, with iron and steel manufacturing, chemical and petrochemical processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, oil and gas production and cement manufacturing accounting for significant portions of these emissions. 

The food and beverage, non-ferrous metals - such as aluminum - pulp and paper, machining, mining, quarrying, construction, textiles, wood products and automobile manufacturing industries are also noteworthy contributors to industrial emissions. 

Transportation, which plays a key role in every industrial market, is also responsible for significant GHG emissions. This is partially owed to electricity generation for electric vehicles (indirect emissions), in addition to all direct emissions from burning fossil fuels to power transport activities. 

Road transport accounts for a significant share of global emissions from burning gasoline and diesel. An estimated 60% of road transport emissions stem from passenger travel and the remaining 40% comes from road freight. 

Aviation, maritime and rail transportation account for the rest of transportation-related emissions. And finally, poorly constructed or unmaintained leaking pipelines can create direct fugitive emissions, primarily of methane, a very potent GHG. 

Overall, utilities account for the highest percentage of GHG emissions by burning coal, oil and natural gas in conventional power plants. Therefore, transitioning to cleaner power generation technologies is an essential pathway to carbon reduction. 

The global industry goal for decarbonization is generally accepted to be “net-zero by 2050”. As shown by the graph, there has been progress in reducing industrial emissions. However, not all initiatives are commitments to net-zero. 

There are multiple recognized pathways to reducing industrial plants’ carbon emissions, each of which will be discussed in the following sections. 

Global leadership and trade coordination

Global leadership groups have devised pathways to reduce GHGs, especially developing the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which sets climate impact goals for businesses. SBTi is a global initiative founded by the Carbon Disclosure Project, UN Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund. Science-based targets provide unbiased measurement goals that companies and nations can use to determine current GHG levels, along with the reductions required to continue on the program to net-zero. Endress+Hauser has been a member of SBTi since 2023. 

Investments in innovative clean technology and energy efficiency

To meet ambitious targets like net-zero by 2050, companies must plan decarbonization initiatives immediately and expedite them when the technology becomes viable to produce meaningful results. To meet these goals, governments and private enterprises are making investments in clean technologies, such as green hydrogen, solar, wind, hydroelectric, tidal and nuclear power.

Because some of these technologies are more unreliable than others at the present time, care must be taken to fill in temporary gaps. All these technologies are carbon-neutral, meaning they do not produce harmful atmospheric emissions. Additionally, industries must work to reduce waste and malfunctions in their processes - such as leaks - which all produce unnecessary emissions.

Current and emerging technologies and practices for decarbonization via hydrogen

Green hydrogen is completely sustainable and does not emit GHGs during use or production. It is easily storable and very versatile and it can be combined with other products, such as synthetic gas and electricity. 

However, despite its climate benefits, hydrogen also has drawbacks. To begin with, it is expensive to produce and use compared to other green energy sources. Additionally, there is concern regarding its scalability and place in the logistics chain. 

Hydrogen shows promise, and both land-based and maritime transportation operators are investing in research and development. Power generation facilities are exploring practices of augmenting - or even fully replacing - natural gas operations with hydrogen as well. Hydrogen can also be blended with natural gas in existing pipeline networks to reduce emissions. 

Heat recovery and sector coupling 

Efficient decarbonization requires a panoply of renewable energy technologies for electricity. This is especially true of heating, cooling and heat recovery technologies, in addition to traditional coupling in combined heat and power (CHP), cogeneration plants and district heating. The heating and cooling sector lags behind the electricity sector by 10% in decarbonization efforts. 

Decarbonizing the heating sector is especially important in high population areas such as Europe, North America, India and China because it represents between one quarter and half of final energy consumption in these markets and a large portion of carbon emissions in the rest of the world. 

The heating and cooling sectors must contribute to GHG emission reductions by increasing use of renewable energy sources. Sector coupling efforts - which aim to integrate electricity, heating and transportation operations into a more centrally-managed and co-dependent system to optimize energy efficiency - also contribute to this end. 

Leveraging both direct and indirect electrification can increase the energy utilization agility of these sectors, along with the ability to reduce and reuse power in energy storage systems. 

A plan for industrial decarbonization to achieve net zero carbon emissions 

Reducing industrywide carbon emissions cannot be conducted in a vacuum as it requires input from a variety of market sectors, including public and private stakeholders. 

Because carbon reduction comes at a financial cost to individual enterprises, success in this area is dependent on regulations and incentives. Some changes can be self-funding, such as modifying processes to consume less energy and raw materials, while producing the same product. However, many carbon reduction efforts are not financially viable, even in the long run. This is where external credits are required to spur momentum. 

Political and societal pressure has been increasing around this activity over the past two decades and is beginning to show results. However, at the current rate of piecemeal progress, industry is not on target to achieve net-zero ambitions by 2050, so incentivization may need to be introduced on a global scale to enable greater circularity. 

Additionally, every industrial sector must gain access to a wide variety of low-carbon energy sources, including green hydrogen, hydroelectric, solar, wind, tidal (still developing) and nuclear power to provide the required energy without increasing GHG emissions. On top of ecofriendly energy supplies, carbon capture and storage technologies will aid organizations’ emissions reduction efforts.

Every plant and sector must also reduce waste, while improving product quality and operational performance. Circularity via recycling ensures that resources are conserved and waste is minimized. 

Finally, implementing Industry 4.0/5.0 digitalization technologies, with instrumentation-driven data analytics, will enable the use of advanced process control concepts in production processes and throughout the entire value chain. These types of initiatives will increase productivity, improve production control and decrease waste generation.

Decarbonizing global industry, utilities and transportation is a tall task, requiring action from public and private stakeholders around the world. The undertaking is doable, but it will take a collective effort to meet net-zero emissions goals by 2050.