Towards Deep Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries: A Review of Current Status, Technologies and Policies

Anissa Nurdiawati and Frauke Urban
Additional contact information
Anissa Nurdiawati: Department of Industrial Economics and Management, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 114-28 Stockholm, Sweden
Frauke Urban: Department of Industrial Economics and Management, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 114-28 Stockholm, Sweden

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-33

Abstract: Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of global CO 2 emissions. While transitions towards renewable energy have occurred in many parts of the world in the energy sectors, the industrial sectors have been lagging behind. Decarbonising the energy-intensive industrial sectors is however important for mitigating emissions leading to climate change. This paper analyses various technological trajectories and key policies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries: steel, mining and minerals, cement, pulp and paper and refinery. Electrification, fuel switching to low carbon fuels together with technological breakthroughs such as fossil-free steel production and CCS are required to bring emissions from energy-intensive industry down to net-zero. A long-term credible carbon price, support for technological development in various parts of the innovation chain, policies for creating markets for low-carbon materials and the right condition for electrification and increased use of biofuels will be essential for a successful transition towards carbon neutrality. The study focuses on Sweden as a reference case, as it is one of the most advanced countries in the decarbonisation of industries. The paper concludes that it may be technically feasible to deep decarbonise energy-intensive industries by 2045, given financial and political support.

Keywords: energy-intensive industry; emission; decarbonisation; low carbon technology; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2408/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2408/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:9:p:2408-:d:542106

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().