Under the dual-carbon goal, how can chemical industry contribute to the low-carbon transformation of energy?

Recently, the State Council issued the "Carbon Peaking Action Plan by 2030". The "Plan" puts forward the main goals of increasing the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption, improving energy efficiency, and reducing carbon dioxide emission intensity, and has made overall arrangements for promoting carbon peaking.

Achieving carbon peaks and carbon neutrality as scheduled is an important national policy for the country in the era of energy transition, and it is also an important driving force for the country to quickly build a green and low-carbon economic system. As a resource-based and energy-based industry, the typical high-energy-consuming chemical industry will be deeply involved.

At present, the output value of China's chemical industry ranks first in the world, and in the short term it may still be in the rapid development stage of expanding production capacity.

The carbon emissions of the chemical industry are characterized by "limited total emissions but outstanding intensity". Lei Yalin, vice president of Beijing University of Chemical Technology, pointed out that from the perspective of carbon emission intensity, the chemical industry's carbon emissions per 10,000 yuan of added value are 1.29 tons, which is greater than the national industrial average of 1.14 tons. Therefore, in the process of implementing the "dual carbon" target, it faces tremendous pressure to reduce carbon emissions.

Challenges are also opportunities. The chemical industry still has much to do in the process of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. First, the industry promotes energy conservation and emission reduction through energy efficiency improvement, manufacturing process innovation, and the use of renewable energy sources. Secondly, the chemical industry can also transform advanced chemical technologies into energy-saving and emission-reducing products and processes, thereby making important contributions to the low-carbon economy, environment and society.

Replace traditional coal power with renewable energy power

At present, China's primary energy structure is "rich in coal, poor in oil and less in gas." Coal is the main source of carbon emissions in the chemical industry. Last year, carbon emissions from coal accounted for about 61% of the total carbon emissions in the chemical industry.

The future think tank report believes that in view of China's energy resource endowment, which is rich in coal, poor in oil and less gas, the top priority of carbon peaking must be based on the control of coal consumption. Therefore, the increase in terminal electrification rate and the deep decarbonization of front-end power are the keys to carbon reduction.

The same is true for the chemical industry. Under the challenge of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, replacing traditional coal power with renewable energy power, improving energy efficiency control of enterprises, and promoting the development of enterprises to green production will be an effective way for chemical companies to reduce carbon emissions.

At present, the industry's leading chemical companies are developing and using renewable energy power to operate their own devices to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

For example, the specialty chemicals company Evonik said that the company is ensuring sustainable energy supply through new energy management systems, more efficient power plants, green electricity, steam and natural gas on a global scale. Among them, one of its factories in Shanghai has achieved 100% green power production in 2020. Evonik has also installed solar photovoltaic power generation facilities in its multi-user production base in Shanghai to reduce the purchase of traditional coal power.

Digital management improves energy efficiency

Based on the current development costs and reserves of clean energy, the current volume of clean energy such as wind energy and solar energy still accounts for a small proportion of the overall energy. It is expected that traditional fossil energy will still play an important role in China's energy consumption structure and will remain unchanged for a long period of time.

For this part of traditional fossil energy, improving energy efficiency is also an important way for companies to reduce carbon emissions. At present, companies can improve energy efficiency mainly through technology upgrades and strengthening energy consumption management and monitoring.

In this regard, Xie Kechang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, suggested that the application potential of information technology and pan-energy big data in smart energy and smart management should be fully released.

At present, Evonik has been at the forefront of the industry in terms of technological upgrading and strengthening of enterprise energy management and monitoring.

According to Evonik, as early as 2013, the company introduced a systematic energy management digital system, focusing on recording energy consumption and energy efficiency data to determine how energy is used and consumed, as well as the type and quantity of energy carriers used. These data can help factories identify high energy consumption links, so as to formulate targeted measures to improve efficiency and achieve carbon emission reductions in factory energy consumption.

In addition, Evonik is also using AI technology to optimize the resource allocation of the factory. Factories can recommend energy-intensive production processes through AI-assisted analysis of production factors, thereby minimizing operating costs and material consumption costs.

Chemical products help clean energy development

For the chemical industry, in addition to reducing its own carbon emissions, the chemical products it develops and produces can also help the further development of clean energy. The utilization of green energy such as lithium, hydrogen, solar, and wind power all require the use of new chemical materials and new technologies.

Under the "dual carbon" goal, China's wind power industry has entered a period of sustained rapid development. Large-scale wind power equipment can help reduce the cost of wind power and further reduce the cost of electricity. Therefore, under the high prosperity of the industry, the process of large-scale wind turbines has been accelerated.

The large-scale fan corresponds to the upgrade of parts manufacturing capacity and related materials.

At present, fan blades are mainly made of epoxy resin reinforced glass fiber composite materials. Among them, epoxy resin has a greater impact on the mechanical properties, strength, fatigue resistance, and cost of the blade.

The industry is constantly optimizing epoxy resin systems. By using special additives, manufacturers can significantly improve the performance of epoxy resin systems.

For example, the isophorone diamine crosslinker provided by Evonik can provide higher mechanical strength for the epoxy resin system, thereby improving the rigidity, toughness and long-lasting stability of the overall blade system; the company is also actively developing other crosslinking agents. Coupling products help manufacturers optimize production processes and shorten production cycles.

In addition, hydrogen energy is also an important transformation direction of the energy system due to its advantages of non-polluting, high density, wide range of sources and utilization methods.

However, the current hydrogen production cost, especially the green hydrogen production cost that can achieve zero carbon emissions in the production process, has been high, restricting its large-scale development.

In order to promote the commercialization of "green hydrogen", Evonik has developed a new type of anion exchange membrane that can produce hydrogen by electrolyzing water with high yield and low cost. On this basis, Evonik is also cooperating with other companies in the industry, including scientific research institutions, electrolytic cell developers, and energy companies, to promote the development of a complete electrolysis system.

Looking to the future: Let CO2 return to the value chain

With the advancement of the "dual carbon" goal, reducing carbon dioxide alone is not enough. In the future, carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology will play a greater role.

CCUS refers to the technical process that separates carbon dioxide from the emission source, converts it and uses it, or directly stores it in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Compared with other technologies, CCUS technology can recycle carbon dioxide and produce certain economic benefits, so it is more practical.

According to estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA), to achieve the 2050 emission reduction target set by the United Nations, the carbon dioxide captured by CCUS needs to increase from about 40 million tons/year in 2020 to at least 5.6 billion tons/year in 2050.

At present, many companies have started the development of CCUS technology and formed multiple technical paths. For example, Evonik is working with Siemens to make artificial photosynthesis possible through electrolysis and fermentation processes, and then use carbon dioxide, green energy and bacteria to produce chemicals. This technology may be used in any production process that releases carbon dioxide.

In the context of carbon neutrality, the world's energy structure is being adjusted, the energy structure is continuously optimized, and it has become the consensus of the global energy industry to cope with climate change and promote low-carbon transformation of energy.

Shi Yubo, chairman of the China Energy Research Society, said at the energy high-quality development forum held this year that standing at the key node of energy transformation and climate change, enterprises in the entire industrial chain of the energy and chemical industry are required to take practical actions to save energy and reduce emissions. Promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure.

The digital management of energy, the adoption of green power, and the research and development of chemical products to help clean energy development by chemical companies will help accelerate the transition to green and low-carbon energy, and write more imagination for the realization of the dual-carbon goal.