Abstract
Industrial process heat decarbonization through electrification could contribute significantly to climate change mitigation efforts. In the US industry, thermal processes accounted for more than two-thirds of the total final energy demand in 2021. Cross-cutting electrification technologies like industrial heat pumps are suitable for the process heat supply to several industrial unit operations in a sustainable way while also improving overall energy efficiency. This study employs a bottom-up approach to investigate the techno-enviro-economic potentials of deploying high-temperature and steam-generating heat pumps in US textile, pulp and paper, and automotive sectors in different timeframes. The results show that the annual technical potential energy and CO2 savings by electrifying heat supply are 310 PJ (or 36% of the projected energy demand) and 28 MtCO2 (or 71% of the projected CO2 emissions) in 2050 respectively, however, these incur additional costs in each sector (ranging between 5 and 18 $/GJ). The required heating capacity of industrial heat pumps is estimated at 15 GW, which translates roughly into a market of over 6000 heat pump units and an investment volume of $7 billion in the studied processes. Although there may be individual cost-effective opportunities for electrifying heat supply in specific industrial sites, the overall costs are estimated to be high in the three industrial sectors due to the large disparity between electricity and natural gas prices and low heat source temperatures. To overcome the identified techno-economic barriers, comprehensive action plans for different stakeholders are also given. This study provides novel insights that should inform policymakers’ and executives’ decisions about the electrification of the current and future US industrial heat supply in relevant industrial sectors.
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Notes
The production in the studied manufacturing sectors is typically done in closed environments where building temperatures are maintained for thermal comfort. Hence, the ambient temperature at 25°C is assumed to be reasonable for the base case scenario. However, in some cases, the ambient temperature could be lower than 25°C which could impact IHP efficiencies.
The US administration has set an ambitious target to produce 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035 (The White House, 2021). Hence, in this grid decarbonization scenario, the national average electricity grid emission factor is assumed zero in 2035.
It should be noted that no process heat integration measures except for the IHP applications and condensate recovery are considered as they are site-specific and difficult to generalize. Hence the final energy demand in business-as-usual (BAU) in Fig. 3 (and in all the similar figures in the “Pulp and paper manufacturing” to “Automotive manufacturing” sections) is the maximum required by the individual process without heat integration. Depending on what a plant currently does with its waste heat, the demand might be slightly lower.
Electrification projects will be implemented at the plant level. If a given industrial plant in a specific region electrifies its process heating demand with the help of IHPs today and purchases renewable electricity through a power purchase agreement, then CO2 emissions reductions at a large scale can be achieved immediately.
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Acknowledgements
The work described in this study was conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The authors would like to thank Joe Cresko of U.S. DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, Arman Shehabi of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Ed Rightor of American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), Paul Scheihing of 50001 Strategies LLC, Cordin Arpagaus and Frédéric Bless of Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences for their contributions to this report. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof, or The Regents of the University of California.
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The CRediT author roles are as follows:
Dr. M. Jibran S, ZUBERI: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Curation, Resources, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft
Dr. Ali HASANBEIGI: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Curation, Writing – Review and Editing
Dr. William R. MORROW: Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Resources, Writing – Review, and Editing
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Highlights
1. Bottom-up approach to study the sectoral potentials of IHP applications.
2. The potential energy savings by IHP applications are 310 PJ p.a. in 2050.
3. The potential CO2 savings by IHP applications are 28 Mt p.a. in 2050.
4. The costs are high due to the large disparity between electricity and fuel prices.
5. Novel insights that inform stakeholders’ decisions about industrial electrification.
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Zuberi, M.J.S., Hasanbeigi, A. & Morrow, W. Techno-economic evaluation of industrial heat pump applications in US pulp and paper, textile, and automotive industries. Energy Efficiency 16, 19 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-023-10089-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-023-10089-6