EU Energy Projects Podcast: Decarbonising energy intensive industries

Five diverse projects – of which four are active and one completed – comprise the Steinbeis energy cluster, with the common goal of decarbonising and advancing the energy transition of energy intensive processes in various industries.

These are H2GLASS and MOST-H2 focussed on how hydrogen can be used in industrial processes in the glass and transport sectors and COREu and CAPTUS focussed on carbon capture, use and storage in sectors such as steel, cement and chemicals. The completed project is FLEX4FACT, which focussed on the use of flexibility in industry through enabling production processes to adapt dynamically to renewable energy availability.

“We are always trying to see where we can increase the outreach of a project and decided to join forces as with the common goal it should enable us to have bigger outreach,” explains Stökle.

“Although all the projects are different, they face a combination of common challenges from the technical, economic and regulatory points of view. They also share common research and innovation goals of moving the technologies into real operating environments.”

Zeroing in on COREu and CAPTUS, the two with which Stökle is most closely associated, these are complementary in that COREu is investigating carbon capture and storage, applicable for carbon that can’t be avoided in hard-to-abate processes, while CAPTUS is addressing carbon capture and usage, applicable for sectors where direct electrification is difficult, such as aviation and shipping and the chemicals industry.

These are challenging because of the long value chains and in particular the need to scale to system level solutions.

For example, in the COREu project, there is a focus on how carbon storage ‘hubs’ could be used as a shared infrastructure.

A topical question is whether carbon capture and storage is a stopgap to carbon capture and use. Stökle suggests that they are complementary with both necessary, at least into the long term.

“It’s very important because we don't yet have all the technologies to decarbonise. But the long-term goal should be to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible and there will always be processes where CO2 cannot be avoided.”

However, she cautions that carbon storage shouldn’t be used by companies as a form of ‘greenwashing’ and that policy is needed in this area.

Another challenge she mentions, perhaps the biggest that has emerged in the projects, is social acceptance, particularly of carbon storage.

“It’s understandable for people who may live close to a storage or processing site and don’t know about the technology and it’s crucial that the public is engaged and not just the politicians.”

With industrial emissions in the EU on the decline but still accounting for over half of all greenhouse gas emissions, the need to decarbonise is critical, with the outcomes of these and other projects keenly awaited.

“Ultimately, all of the industries are under pressure to decarbonise and time is against us,” Stökle declares.

LISTEN NOW

Listen to previous episodes:

EU Energy Projects Podcast: AI sovereignty and the energy transition with project EDDIE
EU Energy Projects Podcast: How AGISTIN is accelerating industrial decarbonisation through smarter integration