Building the low-carbon industrial sector of the future

In order to address climate change, we are at a point where we must rapidly decarbonize some of our most challenging industries. Steps companies and countries take to decarbonize include:

• Reducing energy consumption and usage through energy efficiency and smart grid improvements.

• Using clean energy instead of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal)

• Replacing fossil fuel transportation with electric vehicles.

  The U.S. Department of Energy has designed an Industrial Decarbonization roadmap, which identifies pathways to reduce industrial emissions through manufacturing. Industry represents 30% of U.S. primary energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, or 1360 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2020). The Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap focuses on five of the highest CO2-emitting industries where industrial decarbonization technologies can have the greatest impact across the nation: petroleum refining, chemicals, iron and steel, cement, and food and beverage. These industries represent approximately 51% of energy-related CO2 emissions in the U.S. industrial sector and 15% of U.S. economywide total CO2 emissions.

• This important investment to clean up steel, aluminum, and other heavy emissions industries goes hand-in-hand with other climate-friendly policy measures.

Corporate Sustainability

“Corporate sustainability” is an approach aiming to create long-term stakeholder value through the implementation of a business strategy that focuses on the ethical, social, environmental, cultural, and economic dimensions of doing business.

Public Benefit Corporations: Also known as “B Corporations", these are a business certification that balances purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. This is a community of leaders, driving a global movement of people using business as a force for good. The evolution of a KCC “priority” bill, originally introduced in 2014, and re-introduced over the next several sessions, was legislation to establish public benefit corporations. The Kentucky Legislature finally passed House Bill 35: “An Act Relating to Public Benefit Corporations” in 2017.

Resources

Metals Innovation Initiative is focusing on innovations for primary metals in Kentucky.

Game Change is a collaborative in Kentucky to develop and advance a circular economy for manufacturing solutions, working on next-generation manufacturing and supply chains.

Industrial Decarbonization

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Industry represents 30% of U.S. primary energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, or 1360 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2020). The Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap focuses on five of the highest CO2-emitting industries where industrial decarbonization technologies can have the greatest impact across the nation: petroleum refining, chemicals, iron and steel, cement, and food and beverage. These industries represent approximately 51% of energy-related CO2 emissions in the U.S. industrial sector and 15% of U.S. economywide total CO2 emissions.

More at this link.

Industrial Decarb Roadmap

Low-Carbon Steel

For every ton of crude steel, close to two tons of CO2 is created. What’s more, the global appetite for steel is on the rise. Strategies to reduce these emissions could include:

• Recycled steel. Using recycled steel scrap, rather than virgin-based production, reduces CO2 emissions by 70%.

• Carbon capture and storage (CCUS). Capturing emissions from industry is being explored to address climate change, however these technologies are still under development.

• Green hydrogen. Using green hydrogen to replace coal in blast furnaces could decarbonize steel completely.

• Efficiency. Improving the efficiency of the blast furnace process or plugging in less carbon-intensive fuels would help reduce steel emissions.

• Electrification. Electric arc furnaces have been used for scrap steel, as they weren’t able to reach temperatures needed to process raw iron ore. However, breakthroughs in electrolysis of iron ore are changing that.

The Sustainable Aluminum Network

KCC collaborates with many national partner initiatives as well as local. Over the past two years KCC has been a partner group within the Sustainable Aluminum Network, which is focused on building a zero-carbon domestic aluminum supply chain by 2030, and creating good community jobs in the process.

Globally, primary aluminum demand is forecasted to increase by 40% by 2050, according to the International Aluminum Institute. The vast majority of emissions from primary aluminum’s emissions come from electricity use.

Zero-carbon aluminum will be essential to electric vehicles, solar panels, transmission lines, and countless other tools of the clean energy economy. It’s also critical for national security that we have control over our supply chains.

In 2024, it was announced that Kentucky was the preferred location for the first “green” aluminum smelter in the United States.

Working with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Clean Energy Demonstration Program (OCED), Century Aluminum has singled out northeastern Kentucky as its preferred site for a new aluminum smelter that would bring about 1,000 permanent jobs to an Appalachian region hard hit by the loss of coal and steel production. The project has the potential to become the largest investment on record in eastern Kentucky.

This new primary aluminum smelter will rely on green production methods and carbon-free electricity, substantially reducing emissions compared to traditional smelters reliant on fossil fuel-based energy. Century’s greenfield facility, when built, will be the first new primary aluminum facility in the United States since 1980. As part of our work as a member of the Sustainable Aluminum Network, Kentucky Conservation Committee is working with state government and clean energy stakeholders to secure Kentucky as the final home for this project.

Aluminum is facing increased scrutiny due to its energy-intensive production and refinement processes that are said to contribute significantly to global carbon emissions.

Green primary aluminum is in increasing demand, and, as a result, aluminum products branded as “low-carbon” or “green” are starting to charge a premium price.

According to the International Aluminum Institute, the power supply mix of aluminum production is shifting. While 50% of the world’s aluminum is still made using coal power, 39% is now made using hydropower.

Further Reading:

“Making Net-Zero Aluminum Possible,” International Aluminum, 2022