M-2B - Emissions Efficiency and Fuel Switching
Emissions efficiency focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy or material used in industrial processes. This strategy involves adopting low-carbon energy sources (like renewables) and switching to lower-carbon fuels (such as natural gas, hydrogen, or biofuels). Additionally, feedstock decarbonisation plays a critical role by replacing carbon-intensive raw materials (e.g., fossil fuels) with low-carbon alternatives like biomass or green hydrogen. Technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) also contribute by capturing emissions from processes that cannot be easily decarbonised. Together, these measures help industries reduce emissions while maintaining production levels.
Mitigation Potential¶
TBD.
Mitigation Options¶
Chapter 11 (IPCC AR6 WG3 2022)1 discusses a number of CCU/CCS focussed mitigation options for the industry sector which are indexed in the table below.
- Electrification
- Fuel switching, such as low-carbon hydrogen
- Feedstock decarbonisation
- Process optimisations
- CCU
- CCS
| Index | Title | Section(s) | Sub-sector(s) | TE(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-2B.1 | Fuel switching to renewable fuels | AR5 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.4.3, 10.4.6, 10.4.8 | T-2A1 - Cement | T-2A1-1 |
| T-2D4 - Mobile Machinery | T-2D4-1 | | | |
| M-2B.2 | Electrification of processes | AR5 10.4.1 | T-2A1 - Cement | T-2A1-2 |
| T-2D4 - Mobile Machinery | T-2D4-2 | | | |
| M-2B.3 | Energy recycling in furnaces and kilns | AR5 10.4.1 | ||
| M-2B.4 | Technology improvements of processes | AR5 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.4.3, 10.4.5 | ||
| M-2B.5 | On-site combined heat and power (CHP) | AR5 10.4.4, | ||
| M-2B.6 | Feedstock decarbonisation | AR6 11.3.6 | ||
| M-2B.7 | CCU | AR6 11.3.6 | ||
| M-2B.8 | CCS | AR6 11.3.6 |
The complete list of sub-sector specific mitigation options in AR5 is:
- Steel
- Fuel switch from coal and coke to:
- gas-based direct reduced iron (DRI),
- oil and natural gas injection,
- charcoal
- ferro-coke
- biomass and waste plastics
- Electrification via switching to electric arc furnace (EAF) processes
- Top-gas recycling in blast furnaces
- HIsarna® (smelt reduction technology) process
- Advanced direct reduction (e.g. with hydrogen)
- Electrolysis (e.g. molten oxide electrolysis)
- Fuel switch from coal and coke to:
- Cement
- Fuel switch from coal to:
- Biomass wastes
- Technology improvements (e.g. geopolymer cement)
- Fuel switch from coal to:
- Chemicals
- Introduction of new N2O emission reduction technologies in nitric acid production such as high-temperature catalytic N2O decomposition (Melián-Cabrera et al., 2004)
- Fuel switching from naptha, fuel oil and coal, to
- Natural gas
- Pulp and paper
- On-site combined heat and power (CHP)
- Paper recycling (repeated from M-2A)
- Non-ferrous (aluminium/others)
- Process controlling to prevent drop in alumina concentrations
- Food processing
- Fuel switch from heavy fuel oil to
- natural gas
- Fuel switch from heavy fuel oil to
- Mining
- Fuel switch from fossil fuel for electricity generation to renewable energy
Emissions¶
See TBD.
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IPCC AR6 WG3. 2022. Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Edited by Priyadarshi R. Shukla, Jim Skea, Raphael Slade, Alaa Al Khourdajie, Renée van Diemen, David McCollum, Minal Pathak, et al. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157926. ↩