The UK Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy revisited

In the period since 2010 successive UK Governments have produced various decarbonisation strategies for industry. This article scrutinises the most recent version that was published in March 2021: The Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy (IDS). It contrasts the policy content of the IDS with previous industrial roadmaps, action plans and strategies (including the Clean Growth Strategy of 2017). In addition, it compares the proposals in the IDS with the latest recommendations of the UK Government's independent Climate Change Committee, as well as drawing on lessons learned from the techno-economic assessments published by the author and his collaborators for a number of key 'Foundation Industries'. The latter emit significant shares of UK industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: The iron and steel (∼25%), chemicals (∼19%), cement (∼8%), pulp and paper (∼6%), and glass (∼3%) sectors. They also produce some 28 million tonnes of materials per year, which are worth £52 billion to the UK economy, and account for ∼10% of UK total CO2 emissions.</p

Industrial energy use and carbon emissions reduction in the iron and steel sector:A UK perspective

The opportunities and challenges to reducing industrial energy demand and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the iron &amp; steel sector are evaluated with a focus is on the situation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), although the lessons learned are applicable across much of the industrialised world. It is the largest industrial sector in the UK in terms of energy demand and ‘greenhouse gas’ (GHG) emissions, and accounts for some 26% of GHG emissions from British industry. Current Best Available Technologies (BAT) will lead to short-term energy and CO2 emissions savings in iron &amp; steel processing, but the prospects for the commercial exploitation of innovative technologies by mid-21st century are far more speculative. The attainment of significant falls in carbon emissions over the period to 2050 will depend critically on the adoption of a small number of key technologies [e.g., energy efficiency techniques, fuel switching towards bioenergy, and carbon capture and storage (CCS)], alongside the decarbonisation of national electricity supply. The blast furnace is the most efficient energy conversion process in the sector, but also the largest energy user and consequently a priority target for energy demand reduction. Many existing technologies could reduce a significant proportion of process energy loss, e.g., heat recovery at the coke ovens, sinter plant, and electric arc furnace, and further heat and gas recovery from the basic oxygen furnace. The uptake of key BAT technologies for hot-rolling could reduce sector primary energy by 18% and GHG emissions by 12%. Further potential may be available for blast furnace operation by optimising chemical transfer to minimise blast furnace gas (BFG)production. Nevertheless, there are a number of non-technological barriers to the take-up of such technologies going forward. Other radical process technological innovations (such as the ‘electrowinning’ or so-called HISARNA process) are likely to be available in the longer term

Indicative Energy Technology Assessment of Hydrogen Processing From Biogenic Municipal Waste

An indicative appraisal has been undertaken of a combined Anaerobic Digestion and Steam Methane Reforming process to produce sustainable hydrogen from organic waste. The anaerobic digestion plant was based on the plant in Tilburg (The Netherlands), and was modelled from the kerbside organic waste collections through to methane production. Data on biogenic waste was obtained from a collection trial in a municipal area in the UK. This was scaled-up to match that of a Tilburg-like anaerobic digestion plant. The waste collection trials enabled the catchment area for an anaerobic digestion plant on a commercial scale to be estimated. A thermodynamic evaluation of the combined process included energy and exergy analysis in order to determine the efficiency of each process, as well as to identify the areas that lead to inefficiencies. The overall energy efficiency is 75% and the overall exergy efficiency is 60%. The main energy losses were associated with compressor inefficiencies. In contrast, the main exergy consumption was found to be due to the fermentation in the digestion tanks. Other hydrogen process efficiencies vary from 21% to 86%, with the higher efficiencies belonging to non-renewable processes. However, the sustainable hydrogen produced comes from entirely renewable sources (biogenic waste) and has the benefit of near-zero carbon emissions in contrast to fossil fuels. Finally, the case study included an indicative financial assessment of the collection to processing chain. A discounted payback period of less than 20 years was estimated with a modest annual charge for householders

Environmental footprint analysis of an urban community and its surrounding bioregion

Environmental or ecological' footprints have been widely used as partial indicators of sustainability; specifically of resource consumption and waste absorption transformed in terms of the biologically productive land area required by a population. The environmental footprint of the Unitary Authority of Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) in the South West of England (UK) has been estimated in terms of global hectares (gha) required per capita. BANES has a population of about 184 870 and covers an area of 35 200 ha, of which two-thirds are on green belt' land. The UNESCO World Heritage City of Bath is the principal settlement, but there are also a number of smaller urban communities scattered among its surrounding area (hinterland' or bioregion'). The overall footprint for BANES was estimated to be 3.77 gha per capita (gha/cap), which is well above its biocapacity of 0.67 gha/cap and Earthshare' of 1.80 gha/cap. Direct energy use was found to exhibit the largest footprint component (a 31% share), followed by materials and waste (30%), food and drink (25%), transport (10%) and built land (4%), whereas the water footprint was negligibly small (1/40%) by comparison. Such data provide a baseline for assessing the Council's planning strategies for future development.</p