Climate-Neutral Industry

Industry is responsible for around a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. The energy transition will therefore only be successful if companies can transform their production processes to become climate-neutral.

This transformation presents challenges: Technological solutions must be scaled up and processes converted to utilize new energy sources and materials. At the same time, it is important to safeguard the long-term competitiveness of German and European industry.

With our applied research, we want to contribute to sustainable industrial transformation with the aim of establishing climate-neutral and competitive industries in Europe. Our focus here is on energy-intensive industries, i.e., the production of basic industrial materials such as chemicals, steel, cement, glass, and paper.

 

Our topics

• Climate-neutral process heat and electrification: What is the potential for electrification in industrial sectors? How economical is this for different technologies, branches and companies?
• Hydrogen economy and hydrogen infrastructure: How much hydrogen will climate-neutral industry need in the future? What demands will this place on infrastructure?
• CO₂ infrastructure and carbon management: What would CO₂ infrastructure to store hard-to-abate emissions look like in the future? What investments would this need?
• Circular economy: How can the circular economy and efficient material use contribute to decarbonizing industry? Where are the greatest potentials?
• Integrated sectoral strategies: Which transformation strategies make it possible for industries or companies to make the change to climate neutrality?
• Policy instruments for industrial transformation: What effects do regulations and laws have on the transformation of industry and the economic viability of climate-neutral solutions?
• International and national competitiveness: How can climate-neutral production be competitive internationally?

 

Our methods

• Identifying transformation pathways and infrastructure requirements: We model development pathways toward a climate-neutral industry as the basis for making strategic decisions in business and politics.
• Evaluating technologies: We evaluate decarbonization solutions including electrification, hydrogen, the circular economy, and CO₂ infrastructure for energy-intensive industries using data-driven methods.
• Taking a systemic perspective: Our research combines technology expertise, energy system analyses and the evaluation of political strategies for a holistic transformation - all supported by extensive databases and quantitative assessments.
• Quantifying competitiveness: We examine the economic viability of transformation pathways and develop strategies that combine climate neutrality with economic strength, both nationally and internationally.

 

Our system models

Our expertise incorporates a wide range of models with high temporal and spatial resolution.

• We use the techno-economic simulation model FORECAST to determine transformation pathways and scenarios leading to climate-neutral industry in Germany and Europe. The model can make a realistic evaluation of the potential of technologies such as electrification due to its high resolution of processes and technologies.
• We use regionalized models and databases offering high spatial resolution to assess the energy infrastructure requirements for electricity, hydrogen, and CO₂.
• We use material flow models to quantify the potential and effects of a circular economy.
• We use energy system models to examine the interactions between industry and the energy system.

 

The Coordinator of the Business Unit is Dr. Tobias Fleiter.