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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Can hard-to-abate industries be decarbonised?
25/5/2022
5 min read
Cement and steel production are global drivers of economic growth, but they are also responsible for massive volumes of hard-to-abate carbon emissions. A recent webinar by Rystad Energy examined some of the options for decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement 1.5℃ target. Brian Davis reports.
Decarbonisation of the steel and cement sectors faces significant challenges. They are some of the largest consumers of fossil fuels on the planet; fuels that are not easily substituted due to the high-temperature processes used.
‘Neither industry can get rid of coal or find an alternative easily, as it is an essential part of current processes. What’s more, electricity cannot be used as a direct heating source – which makes them hard-to-abate industries,’ explained Lars Erik Nicolaisen, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Rystad Energy.
Furthermore, if the energy consumption is correlated with the carbon emissions associated with the industries respectively, cement, iron and steel are ‘outliers’ compared to other industrial sectors as they produce a higher proportion of emissions.